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USES OF PLANTS BY THE INDIANS OF 
THE MISSOURI RIVER REGION 



MELVIN RANDOLPH GILMORE 



REPRINTED FROM THE THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT 
OF THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINI'ING OFFICE 

1919 



PREFA(^E 

The results contained in the following paper are born of the desire 
to ascertain so far as possible the relation of the native people of the 
plains to one phase of their indigenous physical environment — its 
plant life — and their ingenuity in supplying their necessities and 
pleasures therefrom. It must be borne in mind that the sources of 
supply available to any of the tribes of the American race wei'e 
greatly restricted as compared with the field from wliich our Eu- 
ropean race draws its supplies. Many of the plants of this continent 
utilized by its native people, however, might well be useful accjuisi- 
tions for our people if made known to us. 

Another potent reason for gathering such information while it 
may still be obtained, before the death of all the old people who 
alone possess it, is that it is only in the light of knowledge of physical 
environments that folklore, ritual, ceremony, custom, song, story, and 
philosophy can be interpreted intelligently. The intellectual and 
spiritual life of a people is reflected from their material life. The 
more fully and clearly the physical environment of a people is known 
the more accurately can all their cidtural expressions be interpreted. 
The old people themselves appreciate this and have expressed tliem- 
selves as glad to give nie all the information they could in the matters 
of my inquiry, in order that, as they said, future generations of their 
own people as well as the white people may know and understand 
their manner of life. To this end my informants in the several tribes 
have taken pains and have shown great patience in instructing me in 
their lore. 

The information here collated has been obtained at first hand from 
intelligent and credible old persons, thoroughly conversant with the 
matters which they discussed. The various items have been rigor- 
ously checked by independent corroborative evidence from other indi- 
viduals of the same tribe and of different tribes through a protracted 
period. The work of the interpreters employed has also been verified 
by comparison and by my own study of the languages of the various 
tribes interviewed. 

The information was obtained by bringing actual specimens of 
each plant to the observation and identification of many inform- 
ants, and the names, uses, and preparation in each case were noted 
on the spot at the dictation of the informant. 

45 



46 PBEFACE 

I have met uniform courtesy, kindness, and hospitality at the 
hiinds of Indians of tlie several tril)es in the pursuit of my in- 
• luirifs, and my sincere thanks arc due to verj' many men and 
women of the tribes, their great number preventing acknowledg- 
mi-nt to them here by name. Special mention for conspicuous 
MTvice renilercd the autlior should he made of Dr. Susan La Flesche 
Picotte and her sister, Mrs. Walter T. Diddock, of Walthill, Xebr., 
dnugliters of Chief Iron Eye, otherwi.se Joseph La Flesche, of the 
Omaiia tribe. Of the same tribe should be mentioned AVajapa, 
\\'hite Mors*'. George Miller, Daniel Webster, Amos Walker, and 
Iticliani Robinson. 

IVni>lika. of the Ponca trilte. enrolled on the Government rolls 
as Jack Penishka, Niobrara, Xebr., lias given much useful infor- 
mation of his tribe. 

Of the Teton Dakota, mention should be made of Fast Horse and 
his wife. Josepli Ilorncloud, Otto Chiefeagle, and the well-known 
Short Hull. 

Of tlie Pawnee, special thanks are due Mr. James R. Murie, Mr. 
.\lfred Murie and his wife, Chief White Eagle, Mr. David Gil- 
lingham, Mrs. Rhoda Knife-Ciiief and Mr. Charles Knife-Chief. 

My tiianks are due also to Dr. Charles E. Besscy, of the University 
of Nebraska, for suggestions and encouragement in carrying on the 
work and to him and Mr. James Moonej' for reading the manu- 
.script. 

I wish to acknowledge also my obligation to Mr. W. E. Safford 
for his painstaking aid in arranging and verifying the botanical 
nomenclature. 



CONTENTS 



Page 
53 
54 
55 
5C 
58 



Introduction 

Neglected opportunities '__'_'_ 

Etlinic botany 

Influence of flora on human activities and culture V..V_ 

Influence of human population on flora 

Taxonomic list of plants used by In<lians of the Missouri River region 61 

Ancient and modern phytoculture by the tribes ._ _ _ 130 

Conclusion "" " "" „ 

Glossary of plant names mentioned in this monograph '_"_'_ 139 

Bibliography ' ^^o 

47 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Plate 1. a. Pulsatilla patens (Pasque flower). 6. Typha latifolia 64 

lA. a. Sagittaria latifolia. 6. A sluggish stream growing full of arrow- 
leaf (Sagittaria latifolia) 64 

2. a. A mass of Stipaspartea bent under the wind. In the background 

can be seen a number of plants of Echinacea angiistifolia in 
bloom, b. Bunch of Sti pa spartea; bunch of long-awned seeds 
of Stipa spartea; a hairbrush made from awns of 8tipa spartea. 66 

3. a. Zizania aquatica (wild rice). Herbarium specimen of straw, a 

few grains not hidled, and a handful of hulled grains as pre- 
pared for food. b. Zizania aquatica, habit 66 

4. a. Arisaema triphyllum. 6. Habit picture of Arisaema tripliyllum. 

Panax trifolium may also be seen 70 

5. a. Tradescantia \-irginica (spiderwort). 6. A circle of cottonwood- 

leaf toy tipis as made by Indian children of Plainstribes 70 

6. a. Erythronium mesochoreum, entire plant, bulbs, and flowers. 

b. Erythronium mesochoreum, habit of growth on the prairie. . 70 

7. a. Yucca glauca in bloom, b. Yucca glauca in fruit 70 

8. a. A bundle of yucca leaves bound up to demonstrate use as drill 

in fire making. 6. A piece of yucca stem prepared to demon- 
strate use aa hearth piece in fire making, c. Adry yuccajjlant. 70 

9. Iris versicolor 72 

10. n. Tubers and fruit of Nelumbo lutea. b. Nelumbo lutea, hahil 80 

11. a. Thalictrum dioicum (early meadow rue), b. Aquilegia cana- 

densis 80 

12. a. Sanguinaria canadensis, detail, b. Sanguinaria canadensis, 

habit '. 84 

13. a. Wildstrawberry native to wild meadows of Nebraska, b. Woman 

of the Teton Dakota pounding chokecherries (Padus nielano- 
carpa) to dry for winter supply 84 

14. a. Foliage and fruit of Prunus bessejd (sand cherry). 6. Branch of 

Prunus besseyi showing prolificness of this fruit 88 

15. Herbarium specimen of Psoralea esculenta (tipsin) 92 

IG. A string of roots of Psoralea esculenta (tipsin) peeled and dried 

to preserve for winter supply 92 

17. a. Vine of Glycine apios (Apios tuberosa). 6. Tubers of glycine 

apios (Apios tuberosa) 94 

18. a. Specimen of Falcata comosa showing leafy branches witli i>iid8 

and small beans i)roduced thereon from the petaliferous flowers. 
b. Leafless branches which grow prostrate on ground surface 
and four large beans produced underground from the deislo- 
gamous flowers of these leafless branches 94 

19. a. Clusters of fruits of Rhus glabra. 6. Cordage made from inner 

bark of Tilia americana (basswood) ; a bundle of raw fiber and 

a piece of cord made by hand from the fiber 100 

74936°— 19— 33 kth i 49 



50 ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 
I'l^TE JO ,1 A cartiu native to Xcbraaka. 6. Gathering buffalo berries (Lep- 

argjrat'a argentea) 1"* 

21. Honitleura lanatum 108 

22. ComuB amomum in bloom 108 

23. o. Awlepias B>Tiaca, flowers, t. Habit of ABclepiaBsyriaca 108 

24. Awlepiaa Byria<:a, fruila 108 

25. lpomoealeptophylla(buBh nioming-glorj-)- An entire plant, show- 

ing the large root, about 4 feet long 110 

26. a. Ipomoea leptophylla (bush moming-glor>), a perennial flowering 

plant native in the sand hills of Nebraska, showing habit. 

b. Ipomoea leptophylla (bush morning-glory) 110 

27. a. Pepo foetidisgima (wild gourd) in bloom, b. Strikes Two, an 

aged man of the Arikara tribe, gathering his tobacco 114 

28. Varieties of squashes and pumpkins cultivated by tribes of Indians 

of Nebraska from immemorial time 116 

29. a. Staminate and pistillate flowers of watermelons grown from 

seed obtained from Penishka, an old man of the Ponca tribe. 

6. Unit of %'ine of above 120 

29A. Uatennelon grown from seed obtained from Penishka, an old man 

of the Ponca tribe 120 

30. a. Echinacea angustifolia interspersed with Stipa spartea. 6. Tops 

and tubers of Ilelianthus tuberosus 132 

JOA. Lacinaria scarioeus 132 



PHONETIC GUIDE 

1. All vowels are to be given tlieir continental values. 

2. Superior n (") gives a nasal modification to tlie preceding vowel. 

3. A consonant sound approximating the German ch is shown 
byS. 

4. A lengthened vowel is shown by doubling, e. g. huwic, pakskimi, 
etc. 

6. Unless indicated as a diphthong, vowels do not unite in sound, 
but each vowel forms a syllable. 

51 



USES OF PLANTS BY THE INDIANS OF THE MISSOURI 
RIVER REGION 



By Melvin Randolph Giljiore 



INTRODUCTION 

Duringtlie period which hasehipsed since the European occupancy 
of the continent of North America tliere has never been a thorough- 
jroing. comprehensive survey of the flora with respect to the knowl- 
edge of it and its uses possessed by the aboriginal population. Until 
recent years little study had been made of the ethnobolany of any of 
the tribes or of any phytogeographic region. Individual studies 
have been made, but the subject has not claimed a proportionate 
share of interest with other phases of botanical study. The people 
of the European race in coming into the New World have not really 
sought to make friends of the native population, or to make adecpiate 
use of the plants or the animals indigenous to this continent, but 
rather to exterminate everything found here and to supplant it with 
the plants and animals to which tliey were accustomed a( home. It 
is quite natural that aliens should have a longing for the familiar 
things of home, but the surest road to contentment would be by way 
of gaining friendly acquaintance with the new environment. AMiat- 
ever of good we may find in the new land need not exclude the good 
things we may bring from the old. but rather augment the sum total 
contributing to our welfare. Agriculture and horticulture .should 
constantly improve the useful plants we already have, while discovery 
of others should be sought. 

We shall make the best and most economical use of all our land 
when our population shall have become adjusted in habit to the nat- 
ural conditions. The country can not be wholly made over and ad- 
justed to a jjeople of foreign habits and tastes. There are lai'ge tracts 
of land in America whose bounty is wasted because the plants which 
can be grown on them are not acceptable to our people. This is not 
because these plants are not in themselves useful and desirable, but 
because their valuable qualities are unknown. .§ft long a.s ,the i^eo- 

• .58' *■■ ■ 



54 V8ES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS Ieth.ann.m 

pli' of the ctiuntry do not demand articles of food other than those 
to which our European ancestors were accustomed those articles will 
1h> subject to demand in excess of production, with consequent en- 
hancement of cost, while at the same time we have large land ureas 
practically unproductive because the plants they are best fitted to 
produce are not utilized. The adjustment of American consumption 
to .American conditions of production will bring about greater im- 
provement in conditions of life than any other material agency. 
The people of any country must finally subsist on those articles of 
foo<l which their own soil is best fitted to produce. New articles of 
diet must come into use, and all the resources of our own country 
must be adetjuatcly developed. 

Dr. J. W. Ilai-shberger has well stated tlie practical uses and the 
corrt'lations of ethnobotanic study: 

rhytoKi'oKniph.v, or plant KeoRrnpliy in its wiciest sense, is concerned not 
only witli the distribution of wild plants, but also with the laws governing the 
diHtrlbution of cultivated plants. In order to determine the origin of the lat- 
ter — that Is, the original center fmni which the cultivation of such i)lants has 
sprnid — it is necessary to examine the historic, archeologic, philologic, eth- 
nologic, and botanic evidence of the past use of such plants by the aboriginal 
tribes of America. This investigation affords interesting data which can be 
applied practically In enlarging the list of plants adaptable to the uses of civi- 
lized man. . . . Ethnobotany is u.seful as suggesting new lines of modern 
manufacture, for exainjile, new methods of weaving goods, as illustrated by 
the practiial application of the careful studies of pueblo fabrics by Frank H. 
Cashing. It is of importance, therefore, to seek out these primitive races and 
ascertain the plants which they have found available in their economic life, 
In order [hat perchan<-e the valuable properties tliey have utilized in their 
wild life may fill some vacant niche in our own, may prove of value in time 
of need <ir wliei; the population of .\merica becom<!s so dense as to retiuire 
ilie iitiliziifion of nil of our natural res<iurces.' 

XEGLECTED OPPORTUXITIES 

That we have had in the past exceptional opportunities for ob- 
taining al)original plant lore, which we have failed to recognize, 
disdained to accept, or neglected to improve, is well shown by an 
incident narrated in his journal l)y the great botanical explorer, 
Bradbury, in the beginning of the nineteenth century. How much 
information might then have been obtained which is no longer avail- 
able! In 1R09 Hradhui-y accompanied a trading expedition up the 
Missouri River as far as the villages of the Arikara. 

I procee<le<l along the bluffs [in the vicinity of the Omaha village which was 
at that time near the place where Homer, Dakota County, Nebr., now is] and 
was very successful in my researches, but had not been long empioyetl when 
I saw an old Indian galloping toward me. He came up and shook hands with 

' Fl.n.hb<-rKpr. Phytog»ogr«phlc InfluenceB Id the Arts and Indastries of American 
Aborlglnm, (i. 20. 



GILMOBE] ETHNIC BOTANY ' KK 

me and. pointing to the plants I liiul collettoi. said. "Bon pour mauger^i " 
to wliich I replied. " iN> pas hon." He then said, " Bon pour medicine? " I re- 
plied, "Oui." He again shook liatids and rode away. . . . On my return 
through the village I was stopped by a group of squaws, who invited me very 
kindly into tlieir lodges, calling me ^aknidaya ' (physician). I declined ac- 
cepting their invitation, showing them that the san was near setting, and that 
it would he night before I coul.l reach the l)oats. They then invited me to stay 
all night; this also I declinetl, but suffered them to examine my plants, for all 
of which I found they had names.' 

ETHNIC BOTANY 

In savage and barbarous life the occupation of first importance 
is the quest of food. In tiie earliest times people had to possess a 
practical working knowledge of plants with regard to their utiliza- 
tion for food: those which were edible, those by which shift could 
be made at need to avert famine, and those which on account of 
deleterious properties must be avoided at all times, came to be known 
by experience of all the people in their range. 

In the process of experiment some plants would be found which, 
though not proving useful for food, would disclose properties which 
could be used as correctives of unhealthy conditions of the body; 
some would be found to allay fevers, some to stimulate certain func- 
tions, others having the effect to stop hemorrhage, and so on. 

Certain persons in every tribe or social group, from taste and 
habit, would come to possess a fund of such knowledge, and to the.se 
all simpler folk, or those more occupied with other things, would 
resort. These wise ones then would know how to add the weight 
and dignity of ceremony and circumstance so that the laity should 
not fail to award due appreciation to the possessors of such knowl- 
edge; thus arose the rituals connected with the uses and the teach- 
ing of the same. Persons who desired to acquire such knowledge 
applied to those who possessed it. and if of approved character and 
prudence they, upon presentation of the customary fees or gifts, 
were dtdy instructed. These primitive professors of botany would 
then conduct their disciples on private excursions to the haimts of 
the plants and there impart to them the knowledge of the charac- 
teristics and habits, ecologic relations, and geographic distribution 
of the plants, together with their uses, methods, and tinK» of gather- 
ing, preserving, and preparing for medicinal use, and the pro])er 
way to apply thom. 

^ Bradbury must have been mistaken as to the meaning of the people or have misun- 
derstood the term used, because the Omaha word for " physician " is wazathe. The 
word iral-a"d<i!7i means " somethlns supi'rnatural." This may be the word Bradbur.v 
heard and has given as wakendaija, or he may have misunderstood some other word 
Xo such word as wakcndapa has been found by rae In the Omaha language. 

- Bradbury, Travels in the Interior of .\merica, p. 75. 



56 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. ANN.S3 

Besides this body of special plant lore there was also a great deal 
of kiiowledjjje of plants in general and their common uses, their 
range, habits, and habitat, diffused among the common people. 
There was also n body of folk sayings and myths alluding to plants 
commonly known. 

INFLUENCE OF FLORA OX HLTVIAX ACTIVITIES AND 
CULTURE 

The dominant charafter of the vegetation of a region is always an 
imjiortant factor in shaping the culture of that region, not only 
directly by the raw materials which it supplies or withholds, but 
indirectly also through the floral influence on the fauna. The chase 
of the buffalo with all that it entailed in habits of domestic life, in- 
strumentalities and forms of government, industrial activities, and 
religious rites, was directly related to the praiiue and plains forma- 
tions of vegetation. The food staples, the style of housebuilding, 
and forms of industrj- were quite different in the prairie region from 
what they were in the eastern woodland regions, and in the desert 
region of the Southwest they were different from either of the first 
two regions. 

The Dakota came into the prairie region from the east in the lake 
region, impelled by the onset of the Chippewa, who had the ad- 
vantage of firearms acquired from the French. In the lake region 
they had as the most important article of vegetal food the grain of 
Zhania af/uatira. As they migrated westward the quantity of 
Zizania diminished and the lack had to be supplied by substitution 
of something which the prairie might afford. One of the food plants 
of greatest importance they found on the prairie is PsoraJea escu- 
lenta-. The Dakota name of the wild rice, Zizania aqu-atica, is -psi^ 
and of Pxoralea escvJcnta is tipsi''na. From the etymology of these 
two names Dr. J. R. Walker, of Pine Ridge, has suggested that the 
second is derived from the first, indicating the thought of its useful- 
ness as a food in place of what had been the plant of greatest im- 
portance in the food supply of the region formerly inhabited by this 
people. Doctor Walker offers this suggestion only as a possible ex- 
planation of the derivation of fripsi"na. Ti"fa is the Dakota word 
for "prairie": na is a sufli.x diminutive. It is suggested, then, that 
in fips/'na we have a compound from fi"ta-p»i''-nn. This seems a 
plausiiile explanation. It need not imply tliat Psoralea was thought 
to i)e like Zizanin, but only that it was a little plant of the prairie, 
tl't(u which served a use like to that of Zizania, psi". This is probably 
a case in point, but whether so or not, instances could be cited of the 
influence of vegetation on language, as in case of some names of 



oii-MORE] INFLUEKCE OF FLORA 57 

months, Wazhushtecha-sha^wi, Red Strawberry moon— i. e. the 
moon (lunar montli) when strawl)errie.s are red ripe, the name of 
the month of June in the Dakota calendar. 

The prevalence of certain plants often gave origin to place names. 
As examples of such names may be cited the Omaha name of Logan 
Creek, tributary of the Elkhorn Eiver, Taspa^-hi-hate-ke (meaning 
river where clumps of Crataegus are) . Another instance is the Omaha 
name of Loup River, wliicli is Nv>-ta'-lce (river where nu. abounds). 
Nu is the Omaha name of Ghjcine apios. The Omaha name of Little 
Blue River is Maa-ozhl-k-e (river full of cottonwoods, m<ta). 

The character of the flora of a region has its effect on the style 
of architecture. The tribes of the eastern woodlands had abundance 
of timber for building, so their houses were log structures or frames 
covered with bark. In Nebraska, where the forest growth was very 
limited, the dwelling was the earth lodge, a frame of timbers 
thatched with prairie grass and covered with earth. 

A people living with nature, and largely de])endent upon nature, 
will note with care every natural aspect in their environment. Ac- 
customed to observe through the days and the seasons, in times of 
stress and of repose, every natural feature, they will watch for every 
sign of the impending mood of nature, every intmiation of her favor 
and every monition of her austerity. Living thus in daily asso- 
ciation with the natural features of a region some of the more not- 
able will assume a sort of personality in the popular mind, and so 
come to have place in philosophic thought and religious ritual. 

Throughout the range of the Plains tribes they saw everywhere 
the Cottonwood, the willow, and the cedar. These trees by their ap- 
pearance impressed the imagination of the primitive mind. The 
cedar, appearing to be withdrawn into lonely places, and standing 
dark and still, like an Indian with his robe drawn over his head 
in prayer and meditation, seemed to be in communion with the 
Higher Powers. The willow was always found along the water- 
courses, as though it had some duty or function in the world in 
connection with this element so imperatively and constantly needful 
to man and to all other living forms. The cottonwood they found 
in such diverse situations, appearing always so self-reliant, sliowing 
such prodigious fecundity, its lustrous young leaves in springtime 
by their sheen and by their restlessness reflecting the splendor of the 
sun like the dancing ripples of a lake, that to this tree also they 
ascrilied mystery. This peculiarity of the foliage of the cottonwood 
is quite remarkable, so that it is said the air is never so .still that 
there is not motion of cottonwood leaves. Even in still summer 
afternoons, and at night when all else was still, they could ever hear 
the rustling of cottonwood leaves by the passage of little vagrant 



58 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. ann.33 

currents of air. And the winds tlieniselves were the paths of the 
Hiphcr Powers, so they were constantly reminded of the mystic 
cliuriictcT of this tree. 

The Sacred Pole, an object of the greatest veneration to the 
Omaha Nation, was made of cottonwood. 

These three trees will serve as examples of plants to which mys- 
tcrj' is ascribed and which had symbolism in the rituals of religion. 
In the chapter on the aboriginal uses of plants, where the plants are 
listed according to taxonomic order, several others will be found. 

It will be foimd that the sense of beauty and the pleasure-giving 
arts will, with every people, find outlet and expression by means of 
the natural products of their own region. Much of the enjoyment 
of art arises from association. Tiie tribes of Nebraska found within 
their range many plants yielding pigments to gratify the love of 
color; they also found many plants whose leaves or seeds yield 
fragrance. All of these scents are clean and wholesome and redolent 
of the pure outdoors and freshness of breezes from nature's garden 
and the farthest removed from any suggestion of hothouse culture 
and of the moiling of crowds. By a whitf of any of these odors one 
is mentally carried, by the power of association and suggestion, to 
the wide, quiet spaces, where the mind may recover from throng- 
sickness and distraction of the multitude and regain power and 
poise. 

Native plants of the region also furnished the materials for per- 
sonal adornment, although it is noteworthy that it has not been found 
that flowers were used for this purpose by any of the tribes of the 
plains. It was often remarked that the people admired the wild 
flowers in their natural state, but they never plucked them. How- 
ever, beads and pendants were made from many seeds. 

INFLUENCE OF HUMAN POPULATION ON FLOKA 

It would be most interesting if we could determine with any degree 
of accuracy the efficient factors in the redistribution of vegetation 
over the ice-devastated region after the glacial retreat. We should 
like to know the distance, velocity, and direction, and the active 
agents, eolian, hydrographic, fauiuil, and anthropic, of the various 
currents in the resurgence of floral life over the region formerly ice 
covered. 

^^'e see the results of human agency as a factor in plant migration 
very clearly in the introduction into this State of a number of plants 
since the advent of Europeans. Some species introduced here are 
indigenous on the Atlantic seaboard, some have been brought from 
Europe and naturalized in the Eastern States, and thence brought 



GiLMORE] INFLUENCE OF POPULATION ON FLORA 59 

here by immigrants from those States; other species, for instance 
Salsola pestlfer (Kussian thistle), have been introduced directly from 
Europe. 

Verbascum thapsus (mullein), Arctium rmnus (burdock), Lean- 
todon taraxacum (dandelion), and many other weeds now very com- 
mon, are of recent introduction by this means, besides many plants 
purposely introduced by the white settlers, such as Nepeta cataria 
(catnip), Roripa armoracia (horseradish), and other herbaceous 
plants, and fruit and timber trees, vines, and shrubs. 

Although these sources of plant immigration into Nebraska are 
recognized, the human factor in plant distribution prior to the 
European advent is not so obvious and may not have suggested itself 
to most of my readers. But the people of tlie resident tribes traveled 
extensively and received visitors from distant tribes. Their wants 
required for various purposes a great number of species of plants 
from mountain and plain and valley, from prairie and from wood- 
land, from regions as remote from each other as the Rio (iraude and 
the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence. 

Their cultivated plants were all probably of Mexican origin, com- 
prised in the Cucurbitaceae (squashes, pumpkins, gourds, and water- 
melons), Phaseolus vulcjaris (garden bean) in 15 or more varieties, 
Zca viays (corn) in five general types aggregating from 15 to 20 
varieties, and their tobacco, N'wotiana. quadrivaJHs. 

But besides these known plant immigrants already carried into Ne- 
braska by human agency before the adventof Europeans, certain facts 
lead me to believe that some plants not under cultivation, at least in 
the ordinary sense, owe their presence here to human transporta- 
tion, either designed or undesigned. Parts of certain plants, and in 
most cases the fruits or fruiting parts, were desired and used for their 
fragrance, as the seeds of AquUegia. canadensis, the fruiting tops of 
2'haUctrum purpurascens, the entire plant of Galmm tnfarum, the 
fruits of Zauthodi/lwm amcricanum, and leaves ami tops of Monarda 
fisfiilosa. Any of these ea.sily might be, and probably were, unde- 
signedly distributed by the movements of persons carrying them. 
Desirable fruits were likely carried from camp to camp and their 
seeds dropped in a viable condition often in places favorable to their 
growth. Malus ioemls is found in Iowa and on the west side of the 
Missouri Eiver in the southeast part of Nebraska, but nowhere higher 
up the Missouri on the west side except on a certain creek flowing 
into the Niobrara from the south near the line between Knox County 
and Holt County. The Omaha and Ponca call tliis creek Apple 
Creek on that account. The original seed, so far from their kind, 
probably reached this place in camp kitchen refuse. 



(JO USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS Iktii. ann. 33 

AcorUK ralaiiiu/t and Lobelia curdinalis are both found in certain re- 
strictfil ureas within the old Pawnee domain. Acorm is exceedingly 
highly prized l)y tlie Pawnee, and also by the other tribes, for medici- 
nal use, and by the Pawnee especially for ritualistic religious use. 
Also its s*'eils were used for beads. Seeds obtained originally at a 
place far distant might have been lost in the margins of streams, and 
so liave been introduced unwittingly. Moreover, seeds or living roots 
might lia\e been brought purposely and set by the priests and doctors 
without the knowledge of the laity. Thus this plant may have been 
introduced to the few places where it is now to be found in Nebraska 
cither with or without design. At all events it appears most probable 
that it was introiluced by human agency. It is significant that the 
isolated areas where it is found are comparatively near old Pawnee 
village sites. Lobelia was a plant to which mystic power in love af- 
fairs was attributed. It was used in making love charms. Of course 
tlio methods and formula' for compounding love medicines were not 
known to everyone, so a person desiring to employ such a charm must 
resort to some one reputed to ha\e knowledge of it and must pay the 
fees and follow the instructions of his counsellor. In order to have the 
medicine convenient the wise ones might very naturally think of try- 
ing to introduce it to grow in their own country. Quite naturally, 
too, its introduction, if accomplished, would be secretly effected. Ad- 
vertising is contrary to the professional code. 

In another place the recent dissemination of Melilotus is discussed. 
"When the Pawnee were removed from Nebraska to Oklahoma they 
carried with them seeds from Nebraska, their mother country, to the 
land, foreign to them, which circumstances they had no power to con- 
trol caused them to colonize. Besides the seeds of their cultivated 
crops they carried stores of dried fruits as part of their food supply. 
Among these were (juantities of dried plums, often dried entire with- 
out pitting. At the present time there are thickets of Prunus ameri- 
raiia wherever are seen the lodge rings of the original earth lodges 
which they first occupied when they went to Oklahoma. This fact I 
oiiserved when I visited that tribe in pursuit of information in their 
plant lore. From consideration of such facts as are here demon- 
strated I am of the opinion that human occujiation and activities 
were more or less efficient factors in the distribution of plants in Ne- 
braska as found by the first comers of the European race. 

The most casual observer can perceive that Europeans, since their 
advent, have greatly changed the flora by introducing new species 
and depleting the numbers of some and augmenting the numbers 
of certain other species. A verj' great depletion has occurred in the 
grassland flora by reason of the large areas in which the original 
flora has been completely exterminated by the plow. Other areas 



i^ii-aoBE] TAXOXOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 



61 



have been overgrazed until tlie original balance of ve-etation Ins 
been destroyed by the unnatural competition in.luced amon- the 
native species as well as by the added competitive factor of Tntro- 
duced species. Thus many pasture lands may now be seen in which 
hard and bitter species, such as SoUdago rv/Ua and Vernoiiia 
fascimlata, not desired by grazing animals, have inordinately in- 
creased. Not only have some species of the natural prairie "flora 
been thus decreased and others increased, but the woodland flora 
has been considerably augmented not only by artificial planting, 
but also by attendant protection of the natural increase, which' 
protection lias been in some instances intentional and in others only 
coincidental. 

The introduction and dissemination of species by human agency 
in aboriginal time has been discussed already. It remains to notice 
the human factor in depletion of certain species and augmentation 
of others prior to European advent. Probably the chief means 
emploj^ed by the tribes, affecting the floral balance, was that of 
fire. Their habit of firing the grasslands was effective in retarding 
the advance of woodland with all its associate flora and very 
probably even drove back the forest line and exterminated some 
:u-eas which, previous to any human occupancy, had been possessed 
by forest growth. 

TAXOXOMIC LI.ST OF PLAXTS USED BY INDIANS OF 
THE MISSOURI EIVEE REGION • 

PrOTOPHYCEAE and ZT(iOPirTCEAE 

Without specification of genera or even of orders it is sufficient 
to say that a green stain for decoration of implements made of 
wood was obtained from masses of the green aquatic \egetation pop- 
ularly known as "jiond scum " or " frog spit." The green substance 
iLsed by the people of the tribes for the purpose of making a green 
stain, obtained by them from sluggish streams and ponds, doubtless 
consisted of colonies of ProfoccK-eus, Ulothrix, Chaetophora-, Spiro- 
gyra, etc. 

AOARICACEAE 

PLErROTus ULMARius Bull. Eliu Cap. 

This fungns is used for food by the tribes acquainted with it. 
When young and tender it is most delicious. It grows in decayed 
spots on Acer negundo and TJhrms sp. The writer discovered its use 
for food among the people of the Dakota Nation. Some women were 
gathering it in a grove of boxelder near the place where the Cannon- 
ball River flows into the Missouri River, and they gave information 

' See glossary of plant namos, p. 139. 



g2 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. ann.33 

u- to its use. Tlu-y were lookinf; for it in decayed spots caused by 
tiippitiK tin- trees for the purpose of sugar niakinp. for these people 
still make su^'ar from tlie sup of tlie boxelder. 

roI.Vl'ORACEAE BRACKET FUNGI 

PoLTSTICTlS VERHICOI/IR ( L. ) Fr. 

(•ha' rufk-jHi (Dakota), "tree ears" (cha'; wood or tree: na^kpa, 
ear). 

The Dakota use tiiis fungus for food when young and tender, ex- 
cept specimens growing on ash trees (Fraxinufi) , which they say 
are bitter. They are prepared by boiling. 

USTILAGINACEAE SMUTS 

rsTii..\c.o MATDI3 (DC.) Cda. Corn .Smut. 

Wahaba Kthi (Omaha-Ponca) : literally, "corn sores" or "blis- 
ters"' (i/'rtAffi«, corn). 

This fungus was used foi- food by l)oth Omaha and Pawnee. For 
tliis purpose the spore fruits were gathered as soon as they appeared, 
while firm and white, and boiled. They were said to be very good. 

Lycoi'ekdaceae putfball.s 

Ltcoperdon gejimatum Batsch., Calvatia ctathafokmis (Bosc.) 
Morg.. BovisTA plumbea Pers. Puffball. 

IIoh-Khi rh^kpa (Dakota), "baby's navel"' {hokshi, baby; chekpa, 
navel). 

The Pawnee name is Kaho rahik {kaho, the name + rahik, 
old), descriptive of it in the stage when it is used as a styptic. 

The prairie mushrooms, commonly de.signated puffballs, wei-e 
gathered and kept for use as a styptic for any wounds, especially 
for ap[)lication to the umbilicus of newborn infants. From its uni- 
versal application to this use among the Dakota is derived their name 
for the ])uffball. In the young .stage it is used for food. It is used 
also as a styptic by the Ponca and the Omaha. While white and 
firm, before the spores formed, it was sometimes roasted for food 
by the Omaha, but this u.se was unknown to my informant among 
the Dakota. 

ITei.vellaceae 

Mohchella ehcilenta (L.) Pers. Morel. 

Mikai Kth'i (Omaha- Ponca). "star sore" {mikai, star; Hfhi, sore). 
They are much esteemed fcjr food and are eaten boiled. 



gilmohe] taxonomic list of plants 63 

Pakmkllvceae 

PAinrF.LTA noHKF.iii Turn. Lichen. • 
Ch<i" wis!i/e (Dakota). 

USXEACEAE 

USNEA B.\RBATA Hoffm. Liclu'n. 

Ch<i" irU/i/i- (Dakota). 

This lichen and the piecoiling one are by the Dakota used in the 
same way and given the same name. They were used to make a 
yeHow dye for porcupine quills: for this purpose the lichens were 
boiled and the quills dipped in the resulting liquid. 

Eqcisetaceae 

EgriSETrM sp. Horsetail, Scouring Rush, Snakegrass, Joint Rush. 
*!/«"</( /<M<' shiMhn (Omaha-Ponca). ''to-make-a-bow-smooth " 
(ma''de, bow; ithiuifttu to smooth: idh-t' carries the idea of pur- 
pose or use). Designated also shangga irathatc because hoi-ses 
{shan.g()a) eat it with avidity. 
Pakarut (Pawnee). 

It was used by these tribes for polishing, as we use sandpaper. 
Winnebago children sometimes made whistles of the stems, but the 
older people warned them not to do so lest snakes should come. 

PlNACE.\E CON'IFEKS 

PiMS MUKKAYANA Orog. Com. Lodgepole Pine. 

Wiizi (Dakota). 

While not indigenous to Nebraska, this tree was known and prized 
for use as tipi poles. The tribes of eastern Nebraska made trips to 
obtain it in its habitat or traded for it with their western neighbors. 
JiMPERrs ^^RG^XIANA L. Cedar. 

ILmtt or Utinti ahu (Dakota^ : .</)<?, " red." 

.l/(7<f.r/ (Omaha-Ponca ) . 
• Tairat!>aako (Pawnee). 

The fruits are known as h<iuh- Uika, "cedar eggs." The fruits 
and leaves were boiled together and the decoction was used internally 
for coughs. It was given to hoi-ses also as a ivmedy for coughs. 
For a cold in the head twigs were burned and the smoke inhaled, the 
burning twigs and the head being enveloped in a blanket. Because 
the cedar tree is saci-ed to the mythical thunderbird. his nest being 
" in the cedar of the western motuitains." cedar boughs were put on 



f,4 USKS OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth, asn. S3 

tin- ti|)i poles to ward off lightning, "as white men put up lightning 
rods." my infoiiimnt sjiid. 

In the veur 184!»-.JU Asiatic cholera was epidemic among the Teton 
Dakota. Tiie (Jglala were encamped at that time where Pine Ridge 
Agency now is. Many of the ])eoi)le died and others scattered in a 
panic. Red Cloud, then a young man, tried various treatments, 
tinally a decoction of cedar leaves. This was drunk and was used 
ul.so for bathing, and is said to have proved a cure. 

The Omaha-Ponca name for the cedar is maazi. Cedar twigs 
were used on the hot stones in the vapor batli, especially in purifica- 
tory rites. J. Owen Dorsey ' says, " In the Osage traditions, cedar 
.symbolizes the tree of life." Francis La Flesche ^ says: 

Ati iincient cedar pole was also in the keeping of the 'We'zlii'"shte gens, 
mill WHS luiiKe*! In the Tent of War. This venerahle ol).jett was once the 
ivhtral lltrure in rites tliat have heen lost. In creation myths tlie cedar is 
ii.HsoclattHi Willi the advent of tiie hninan race; other myths connect this tree 
with the thunder. The thunder hirds were said to live "in a forest of 
cellars ..." There is a tradition that in olden times, in the spring after 
the tlrst thunder had sounded, in the ceremony which then took place this 
<_'e«lar I'ole was painted anil anointed at the great tribal festival held while 
on tiie hufTalo hunt. 

As a remedy for nervousness and bad dreams the Pawnee used 
the smoke treatment, burning cedar twigs for the purpose. 

Tvi'HACEAE 

TvriiA LATTFOLTA L. Cat-tail. (PI. 1, 6.) 

V\'ihuta-hii (Dakota) : w'llmUu "the bottcmi of a tipi " (hu, plant- 
body, herb, shrub, or tree; in a Dakota plant name hu signifies 
" plant," as does hi in the Omaha language). 
WaJuilj' 'njniskonthe (Onuiha-Ponca) ; wahaha, corn; igaskoiithe, 
similar, referring to the appearance of the floral spikes syn- 
chronously with the maturing of the corn. 
h'sho-hl" (Winnebago) ; k.s/io, prairie cliicken, hi", feather. The 
plucked down resembles in color and texture the finer feathers 
of the prairie chicken, 
Hawnhava (Pawnee). 

Kirit-tach-ai-ush (Pawnee), "eye itch" {kirit, eye; fochanish, 
itch) ; so named because the flying down causes itching of the 
eyes if it gets into them. 
The down was used to make dressings for burns and scalds; on 
infants, to prevent chafing, as we use talciun; and as a filling for 
pillows and padding for cradle boards and in quilting baby wrap- 
pings. Pieces of the stem were essential elements in making the 

' SlouaD Culls, p. ;;!)1. " 

• Fletcher ouj La Flesclie. The Omaha Tribe, pp. 457—1.58. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY THIRTY-THIRn ANNMAL REPORT PLATE 




a. PULSATILLA PATENS. (PASQUE FLOWER) 




h TYPHA LATIFOLIA 

Photo by courtesy Of Public Museum of Milwaukee, Department of Education 



JREAU or Ar.'ERICAN ETHNOLOGY THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE lA 




a. SAGITTARIA LATIFOLIA 
Photo by courtesy of Public Museum of Milwaukee, Department of 

E'i:I-n,t-o-l 




JUL OF ARROWLEAF (SAGITTARIA LATIFOLIA) 



icii uusieu uieinseives in collecting a 
Ti/phn, in a mass of which was laid 
ch adhered after drying the mother 
;er moistening with milk from her 
inknown to the Plains tril)es previous 
hence, instead of cotton diapers, pads 
the purpose by the motiiers in these 



rrowleaf. (PI. lA.) 



[from the likeness of the tuber to the 
also as klts-kaf. "standing in water," 

rit. 
were used for food, prepared by boil- 

aust have some other use for the plant 

liowed excited interest when he saw a 
he did not communicate to me what 



' 




«(' M '^. 



nike and the Four Creators," Sagit- 
) in the myth " How the Big Turtle 

ins iSaglttaria as a food jilant among 



of a plant, the root of which they were 

It grows In low, muddy, and very wet 
inly an inch and a half long, and one inch 
le ; but some of the roots have been us 
5 either boiled this root or roasted it in 
in arrow-liead or ISagittdria, and is only a 
r Sagittaha sagittifolM, for the plant above 
ut the root under ground is much greater 
lean. Mr. Osbeek, in his voyage to China, 

Sngittaria, and eat its roots. This seems 

katniss. 

instated ot" " wild rice." Si" is Sagittaria ; wild 
erica, vol. i, p. 380. 



m^ M ^ ^ L 







gg XJSES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. an.n. 33 

POACEAE 

Spartina michauxiana Hitchc. Slough Grass. 

Sidti-ki (Oniaha-Ponca). 

This plant, which grows in all the swales of eastern Nebraska, 
was iist'd as thatching to support the earth covering of the lodges in 
the permanent villages. 

Savastana ODORATA (L.) Scribn. Sweet Grass. 

Wachanfia (Dakota.) 

I'czhe. zonista (Oniaha-Ponca). 

Manuska (Winnebago). 

Kataaru (l*awnee). 

Sweet grass is found in northeastern Nebraska, and more abun- 
dantly northward and eastward. It was used for perfinne and was 
burned as an incense in any ceremony or ritual to induce the pres- 
ence of gcK)d influences or benevolent powers, while wild sage, a 
siK-cies of ArU'mi»w, wag burned to exorcise evil influences or malevo- 
lent powers. It was an essential element in the objects used in the 
Wawan ceremony of the Omaha and Ponca. According to J. Owen 
Dorsey, wachanga is one of the plants used in connection with the 
sun dance.' 

On Palm Sundays old Dakotas. members of the church, when they 
have received palms at the church, carry them home and tie sweet 
grass with them when they put them up in their houses. At the 
present time, it is said, some of the old people still carry sweet grass 
to church for the Palm Sunday service. This is from the old-time 
association of sweet grass with sacred ceremonies and things holy. 

When Chief Welkie. of the Pembina band of the Chippewa tribe, 
made a treaty of peace with the Dakota tribe the ceremony included 
the smoking of a pipe of tobacco mixed with sweet grass. This was, 
no doubt, with the idea of summoning all good powers as witnesses 
and helpers in conchuling the desired peace. 

Panicum vinoATTM L. Switch Grass. 

llade icafhazkru'nde (Ponca). 

On the buffalo hunt, in cutting up the meat the people were careful 
to avoid hiying it on gi-ass of tiiis species in head, because the glumes 
of the spikelets would adhere to the meat and afterwards would stick 
in the throat of one eating it. 

SnPA spARTEA Trin. Porcupine Grass. Spanish Needles, Needle 
Grass. (PI. 2.) 

MUca-hi (Omaha-Ponca), "comb plant" {mika, comb). 

Pitmts (Pawnee), "hairbrush"; or Paaii jntsuts, Pawnee hair- 
brush. 



■ Stouan Calts, p. 454. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOlOG 




= £?ORT Plate 2 



a. A r.^ASS OF STIPA SPA.RTEA 3E.-.T L^.O£.R THE V.,^.:. I.M 
THE BACKGROUND CAN BE SEEN A NUMBER OF PLANTS OF 
ECHINACEA ANGUSTIFOLIA IN BLOOM 




ST1=A SPARTEA: BUNCH OF LONG-AWNED SEEDS CF^S. I 

BRUSH MADE FROM AWNS OF STIPA SPAR.EA 

Photos by cojrtesy of Depart-ne-t of Botany. Ia«a Sta:e Ai-ic^::.r. 



auPEAO or AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 3 




. ZI2ANIA AQUATICA (WILD RICE). HERBARIUM SPECIMEN OF 
STRAW, A FEW GRAINS NOT HULLED. AND A HANDFUL OF HULLED 
GRAINS AS PREPARED FOR FOOD 




(■. ZIZAniA AQUATICA, H A p. I i 
Pholo by courtesy o( Public Museum of Milwaukee, Deparlmem of Education 



"■^""i"^! TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 57 

The Stiff awns of this grass were firmly bound into a b.mdle, from 
which the pointed grainswere burned off, leaving a brush used for 
dressing the hair. This brush was used also in a certain jiart of the 
ceremony heretofore mentioned as the AVawan of the Omaha-Ponca 
the Hako^ of the Pawnee. 

ZizANiA AQTJATICA L. Wild Rice, Indian Rice. (PI. 3 ) 
Psi- (Dakota). 

Si'^ioaninda (Omaha-Ponca ) . 

Sv" (Winnebago). 

The range of wild rice is very extensive throughout the North 
Temperate Zone. It is found in the shallow lakes of the Sand Hills of 
Nebraska, still more northeastward in the lake region of Minnesota, 
Wisconsin, and Michigan, and northward into Canada. This cereal 
was an important part of the dietary of the tribes of Nebraska, but 
not in so great a degree as with the tribes of the lake regions to- 
ward the northeast. It woidd seem worth while to raise wild rice 
in any lakes and marshy flood plains in our State not otherwise 
productive, and so add to our food resources. From trial I can 
say that it is verv palatable and nutritious and, to my taste, the 
most desirable cereal we have. A quotation from a consular report 
characterizes it as " the most nutritious cereal in America." ^ The 
most exhaustive treatise on wild rice and its use among the aboriginal 
tribes is that by Dr. A. E. Jenks." 

Zea mats L. Maize, Indian Com. 

Wamndheza (Dakota) ; Teton dialect, wagmcza. 

Wahdba (Omaha-Poncii). 

NikUs (Pawnee). 

Maize was cultivated by all the tribes of Nebraska. Native in- 
formants say they had all the general types — dent corn, flint corn, 
flour corn, sweet corn, and pop corn : and that of most of these types 
they had several varieties. They maintained the purity of these 
varieties from generation to generation bj' selecting typical ears for 
seed and by planting varieties at some distance from each other. 
They raised considerable quantities, part of which was preserved by 
drying in the green stage, while the rest was allowed to ripen. The 
ripe corn was pi'epared by pounding to a meal, by parching (some- 
times by parching and then grinding), by hulling with lye from 
ashes to make hominy, and in various other ways. Maize comprised 
a large part of the food .supply. Corn was regarded as "mother" 
among the Nebraska tribes who cultivated it. 

1 Flptcher, The Hako. p. 220. 
'Oiitlimk. Aray 1(1. litis, p. sn. 

= The WUd Rlct- Oathirers of the Ippcr I.akfs. In \inil,,nlli Ucp. Hut: Amn: Ethn., 
pt. 2. 



68 trSES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. annm 

WhiMi the rorn was approaching maturity, and blackbirds made 
d<-F>n'dati<.ns on the fields, the men of the Wazhinga-thatazhi subgens 
of the Omaha tribe used to chew up some grains of corn and spit the 
cliewi'd corn around over the field. This action was supposed to 
keep the birds from doing any further damage.' 

In the (Jmaha subgens, the Wazhinga-thatazhi ("those who cat no 
snuill birds"), the people feared to eat the first mature ears lest the 
small birds, particularly blackbirds, should come and devour the 
rest of the crop.= 

A white leaf appearing in a cornfield was hailed with joy by the 
Onudui as a portent of a bountiful crop for the year and of abun- 
dance of meat at the ne.xt buffalo hunt. 

.Vniong the Omaha if a murderer passed near a field it was feared 
tlie effect would be to blight the crop. Some time in the latter half 
of the nineteenth century a murderer, having passed his tenn of 
e.xih' for his crime, was returning to his people. As he approached 
he was warned awav from the fields by their owners. This indi- 
vidual was a mystery man (" medicine man ") and as such was consid- 
ered to possess supernatural power, or to be able to enlist the aid of 
sujjernatural powers by certain prayers and songs: hence as he came 
by the fields he sang a song to the powers to avert the disastrous effect 
on the crop, which otherwise his presence might incur. Of this he 
a.ssured the people to quiet their fears of blight on their crop. 

Corn silks were gathered and, after being dried in the sun, were 
stored away for use as food. To this end the dried corn silks were 
groiuid with parched corn, and, it is said, gave sweetness to the 
compound. 

Our European race little appi-eciatcs the great number and variety 
of corn food products made by the American tribes. No attempt is 
here made even to give a full list of such products. 

.VxDROPOnoX FTTtrATUS Mvdil. 

Uada-zh'nh' (Omaha-Ponca), "red hay" (liade^ hay; zMde, red). 

This grass, the most common in the meadows and prairies of the 
State, was ordinarily used to lay on the poles to support the earth 
covering of the lodges. The stiff, jointed stems are termed in the 
Omaha-l'onca language peska. These were often used by little 
boys in play to make arrows for their toy bows. In making arrows 
of the stems of this wild grass small boys of the Arikara, Mandan, 
and Hidatsa tribes would commonly insert a thorn of Crataegus sp. 
(thorn apple) for an arrow point. With such arrows to their little 
bows they would train themselves to skill in archery by shooting 
frogs. The first field matron to the Omaha taught the women to knit. 
One woman, Ponka-sa°, lost her needles and improvised a set from 

» Dorsoy, Oninha Sociology, p. 238. 
'Dorsey, Slouan Cults, p. 402. 



<5ii«"RK] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS gg 

pcska. White Horse, an old medicine-man of the Omaha, told me of 
a i-emedial use of Andropngon which he had obtained by purchase 
from an Oto medicine-man. A decoction of the lower bhvdes of this 
grass chopped fine was drunk in cases of general debility and lan- 
guor without definitely known cause. The same decocticm was used 
also for bathing in case of fevers, for this purpose a cut being made 
on the top of the head to which the decoction was applied. The peo- 
ple had great dread of fevers because of the evil effect they were sup- 
posed to liave on the mind : this no doubt was because of delirium 
which often accompanies fe\er. 

Cyperaceae 

SciRPUS VALiors Vahl. Bulrush. 

Psa (Dakota). 

Sa-hi (Omaha-Ponca). 

Sistat (Pawnee). 

The tender white part at the base of the stem of the bulrush was 
eaten fresh and raw by the Dakota. The stems were used to weave 
into matting by all the tribes. A medicine-man of the Pawnee 
evinced lively interest when he saw a specimen in my collection, but 
did not communicate any information about it, a fact from which I 
infer it has some ceremonial use. 

Akaceae 

Arisaema TRiPHVixtJM (L.) Torr. Jack-in-the-pulpit. (PI. 4.) 
Mlkasi-muka" (Omaha-Ponca), "coyote medicine.'' 
Nikso kwor'ik. kahfsu nitawau (Pawnee) ; medicine (or herb) 
kahtsii: that bears, nifawau; what resembles, kororik; an ear of 
corn, nikso. The name is strikingly descripti\e of the ripened 
fruit. 
This i^lant is used medicinally by the Pawnee. When a Pawnee 
medicine-man saw my specimen he evinced lively interest and 
showed me a bag containing tlie pulverized corm, but was unwilling 
to tell me its use. Another Pawnee medicine-man, however, told 
me of its use in treating headache by dusting on the top of the head 
and on the temples. 

The corm was pulverized and applied as a counterirritant for 
rheumatism and similar pains, as irritant plasters are used by white 
people. 

The seeds of this plant were put into gourd shells by the Pawnee 
to make rattles. 

AcoRus CALAMUS L. Sweet Flag, Calamus. 
Si"kpe-ta-icote (Dakota), "muskrat food " (s/"/./'-, nuiskrat : u-ote, 
food). 



70 CSES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS Ieth. ann. S3 

Maka'-ninUla (Oinulia-Poncii). 

A/Wk-a'-kereK (Winnebago). 

Kaht-iha itu (\\\\\nw): kahtm, medicine; ha, in water; itu, lying. 

All the tribes IidIcI tliis plant in very bigh esteem. It was used 
as a furmiiiative. a decoction was drunk for fever, and the rootstock 
was diewt'd as a cougii remedy and as a remedy for toothache. For 
colic an infusion of the pounded root stock was drunk. As 
a remedy for colds tiie rootstock was chewed or a decoction was 
drunk, or it was used in the smoke treatment. In fact, this part of 
tlie plant seems to have been regarded as a panacea. When a hunt- 
ing party came to a place where the calamus grew the young men 
gathered the green blades and braided them into garlands, which 
tliey wore round the neck for their pleasant odor. It was one of 
the plants to which mystic powers were ascribed. The blades were 
used also ceremonially for garlands. In the mystery ceremonies of 
the Pawnee are songs about the cahimus. 

Among the Tet(m Dakota in old times warriors chewed the root- 
stock to a paste, wliich they rubbed on the face to prevent excitement 
and fear in the presence of tiie enemy. 

Co.M M KLI N ACEAE 

Tradescantia virginica L. Spiderwort. Spider Lily. (PI. 5, a.) 
This is a charmingly beautiful and delicate flower, deep blue in 
color, with a tender-bodied plant of graceful lines. There is no more 
appealingly beautiful flower on the western prairies than this one 
when it is sparkling with dewdrops in the light of the first beams of 
the rising sun. There is al)out it a suggestion of purity, freshness, 
and daintiness. 

Wlieii a young man of tiie Dakota Nation is in love, and walking 
alone on tlie prairie he finds this flower blooming, he sings to it a 
.song in which he personifies it with the qualities of his sweetheart's 
character as they are called to his mind by the characteristics figura- 
tively displayed by the flower before him. In his mind the beauties 
of tiie flower and of the girl aie nuitually transmuted and flow to- 
getlier into one image. 

Tiie following song, addressed to TradexvantUi, is translated from 
tiie Dakota language by Dr. A. McG. Beedo: 

"Wee little (lew.v flower. 
So blessed and so shy, 
Thou'rt dear to me. and for 
My love for thee I'd di«." 



OuREaU or AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 5 




(1. TRADESCANTIA VIRGINICA iSPIDERVVORT) 




b. A CIRCLE OF COTTONWOOO-LEAF TOY TIPIS AS MADE BY INDIAN CHILDREh 
OF PLAINS TRIBES 



3UREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY TH I RTY-TH I RD ANNUAL REPORT PLATES 




ERYTHRONIUM MESOCHOREUM, ENTIRE PLANT, 
BULBS, AND FLOWERS 




6. ERYTHRONIUM MESOCHOREUM, HABIT OF GROV/TH ON THE 

PRAIRIE 

Photos by courtesy of Dr. Elda Walker, University of Nebraska 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY Tf 



ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 7 




u. YJCCA GLAUCA IN BLOOM 
Photo by courtesy of Dr. R. J. Pool, University of Nebraska 







3UREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 




A BUNDLE OF YUCCA LEAVES BOUND UP TO DEMONSTRATE USE AS DRILL IN FIRE MAKING 
b. A PIECE OF YUCCA STEM PREPARED TO DEMONSTRATE USE AS HEARTH PIECE IN FIRE 
MAKING. 1-. A DRY YUCCA PLANT 



•^"■MHUKl TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 7^ 

LlI.IACEAE 

Allium mutabile Mithx. Wild Onion. 

Pshi" (Dakota). 

Ma"zho"ka-nmntaiwha ( Omalia-Ponca ) . 

Shi" hop ( AVinnebago ) . 

Osidiwa (Pawnee). 

Since the introduction of the cultivated onion the wild onion is 
known to the Pawnee as Osidiwa t.slfschiks, " native oak/iwa.'' 

All the species of wild onion found within their habitat were used 
for food by the Nebraska tribes, commonly raw and fresh as a relish, 
sometimes cooked as a flavor for meat and soup, also fried. 
Ervthronium JiESoimoREUM Kucrr and E. aliudum Nutt. Spring 
Lily. Snake *Lily. (PI. 6.) 

Iledte-shutsh (Winnebago) . 

I was informed by Winnebago that children ate them raw with 
avidity when freshly dug in springtime. 

LiLIUSI ITMBELLATUM Pursh. 

The flowers of this plant, pulverized or chewed, were applied by 
the Dakota as an antidote for the bites of a certain small poisonous 
brown spider. It is said to relieve the inflammation and swelling 
immediately. 

Yucca glauca Nutt. Soapweed, Spanish Bavonet, Dagger Weed. 
(Pis. 7, 8.) 

Hupeshila (Dakota). 

Duioadu ira-hi (Omaha-Ponca). 

Chakida-kahtsu or Chakila-hahtsH. (Pawnee). 

The root was used by the Pawnee and Omaha in the smoke trejit- 
ment. By all the tribes the root was used like soap, especially for 
washing the hair. On the high treeless plains the Teton Dakota, 
for want of wood for fire-drills, utilized yucca. The hard, .sharp- 
pointed blades were bound together with sinew to make the drill, and 
the stem, peeled and dried, was used as the hearth of the fire-making 
apparatus, just as punk was used in the timbered regions. 

Yucca leaves were macerated till the fibers were cleared, and, 
with the sharp, hard point of the leaf .still attached, were twined 
into thread. The sharp point was used as a needle. 

Smilax herbacea L. Jacob's Ladder. 

Toshvnuk ahunshke (Winnebago), "otter armlet" (foshunuk. 
otter; ahunshke, armlet). 

The fruits were eaten at times by the Omaha for their pleasant 
taste. Thev were said to be effectual in relieving hoarseness. 



72 USliS (II- I'lA.NJ.-, BV INDIANS 1kth.a.nn.33 

ImlJAt'KAK 

Ims vF.itsiK.i.uii L. r.lue Fliig. (PI. 0.) 
MaLw-HLith, ' (Oiiiiiha-Poncii), "sweet medicine" {mnl-a", m<i([\- 
n\w;d-it/u; sweet), or perhaps in this case meaning not "' sweet " 
in tlie sense we use the word, l)ut " stimulating," as the plant has 
11 pungent taste. 
'I'he rootstock was pulverized and mixed with water, or more often 
witli saliva, and the infusion dropped into the ear to cure earache; 
it was used also to medicate eye-water. A paste was made to apply 
to sores and bruises. 

Salicaceae 

Popn.rs sAnoENTii Dode. Cottonwood. (PI. 5. i.) 
Wiii/a r/ui" (Dakota) ; rha" means " wood " or " tree." 
Man z/u>" (Omaha-Ponca), "cotton tree" (.^ho", wood or tree). 
Xafakanm ( Pawnee ) . 

The Teton Dakota say that formerly the people peeled the young 
sprouts and ate the inner bark because of its pleasant, sweet taste 
and nutritive value. Young cottonwood branches and upper branches 
of older trees were provided as forage for their horses and were 
said to be as '" good for them as oats." White trappers and travel- 
ers have recorded their observations as to the value of the cot- 
tonwood as forage. 

Mystic properties were ascribed to the cottonwood. The Sacred 
Pole of the Omaha was made from a cottonwood. This was an object 
which seems to have had anumg that people a function somewhat 
similar to that of the Ark of the Covenant among the ancient He- 
brews. Among the list of personal names pertaining to the Ka"za 
gens of the Omaha tribe is that of Maa-zho'^ Ilocla, Gray Cotton- 
wood. Cottonwood bark was employed as a fuel for roasting the 
clays u.sed in making paints for heraldic and symbolic painting of 
the skin. A yellow dye was made from the leaf buds in early spring. 
A very pretty and interesting use of cottonwood Icaveswas made by 
children in play. They split a leaf a short distance down from the 
tip along the midrib: at equal distances from the tip they tore across 
from the margin slightly; then, bending biick the margin above the 
rents for the smoke flaps, and drawing together the leaf-margins 
below the rents and fastening them with a splinter or a thorn, they 
had a toy tipi. These they made in numbers and placed them in 
circles like the camp circle of their tribe. The children of all the 
Nebraska tribes played thus. It is interesting to note this manifesta- 

■ It shonid be noted that a number of dlircront plants seem to be known by the 
Omnbii uDd Tonkn as ih(i*o"-«*(»ic. •• sweet medicine." 



rUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 




IRIS VERSICOLOR 
urtesy of George R. Fox, Appteton, Wis. 



0"-MORE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 73 

tion of the inventive genius and resourcefulness of the Indian chihl 
mind thus reacting to its environment and providing its own amuse- 
ment. Children sometimes gathered the cottony fruits of the cot- 
tonwood before they were scattered by the wind and used them as 
gum for chewing. In early spring, before the leaves ai)i)ear, the 
waxy buds of the cottonwood were boiled to make yellow dye. 
Feathers for pluming arrows were dyed a yellowish color by dipping 
in a decoction made by boiling tiie seetl vessels of tliis tree. 

Mention has been nuide already of the use of cottonwood leaves 
by little girls in making toy tipis. They were also used to make toy 
moccasins. For this purpose a rent was made at eijnal distances on 
each side of the leaf about halfway from the tip to the ])etiole. The 
edge of the leaf was now turned down in a line from this rent to the 
base ; then the edges of the leaf from the rent to the tip were brought 
together and pinned with a splinter to make the fore part, the edges 
of the base were brought together and fastened to make the back 
part, and behold ! a tiny green moccasin of the pattern common 
among the tribes of the plains, the top being turned ilown at the 
ankle. 

Girls and young women made another pleasing use of the cotton- 
wood leaf. The tip of the leaf was put between the lips and the 
sides pressed against the nostrils with the thumb and index finger 
in such a way that one nostril was (juite closed and the other partly so. 
Then the breath was expelled through the partly closed nostril, vi- 
brating on the leaf in such a way that very sweet musical notes were 
produced, birdlike or flutelike in quality. The effect is most pleasing 
to the ear. 

The green, unopened fruits of cottonwood were used by childivn as 
beads and ear pendants in play. 

Salix interior Rowlee. Sandbar Willow. 

The stems of this willow were peeled and used in basketry by the 
Omaha and other tribes. 

Salix sp. 

WaKpe-popa (Dakota), generic name for willow. 

Iiuhi (AVinnebago). 

Kitapato ( Pa wnee ) . 

Poles of willow of various species, overlaid on the heavier timbers 
to sustain the thatch covered with earth, were used in the consti'uc- 
tion of the earth lodge. Small poles of willow were used to form the 
frame of the sudatory, or bath lodge. Before European customs 
had so far superseded the native tribal customs, willow had its place 
in the funeral customs of the Omaha. On the day of burial, the 
fourth day after the death, at the time of starting from the home for 



-^ USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. ann. 33 

tlu- place ,.f interment, voung men, friends of the family of the de- 
.•oased, appeared at the lodpe to accompany the funeral party to the 
pnive. They made parallel gashes in the skin of the forearm, and 
lifting tlie skin between these gashes, they thrust in the stems of 
willow twigs: leaving these thus depending from the arm. the twigs 
were soon Lathed in the hlood of the yoimg men. who thus attested 
to the living their sympathy and condolence, while they sang the 
tribal .Song to the Spirit. This song is one of joyful cadence rather 
than niournfid. because it is a song of cheer to the departing spirit, 
while their blood and tears manifest their sympathetic feeling for the 
bereaved 

Jl'OLAXDACEAE 

JroLANs xioRA L. Black Walnut. 

lima (Dakota) : Teton dialect, gma ; also by the Teton Dakota 
called ckw-mpa, black wood. 

T<laj/i' (Omaha-Ponca). Tda^e-hi, v.-n\nut tree. 

Chnlc (Winnebago). Chak-hu, walnut tree. 

Sahtaku (Pawnee). 

The nuts were used for food and a black dye was made from the 
root. The black walnut (tdaye) is mentioned in the myth of " Ish- 
tinike and the P^our Creators." ' For food the nuts were eaten plain 
or served with honey, or made into soup. 

HiconiA ovATA (Mill.) Britton. Hickory Nut. 

ChW-fu (Dakota). ChW.m-ku, hickory tree. 

.W'si (Omahu-Ponca). No"si-hi, hickory tr&e. 

Pa^ja (Winnebago), nut. /'«"jIa-AM, nut tree. 

Sahpakskiisu (Pawnee), skull nut, from the resemblance of the 
nut {.sukt, nut; pakskiku, skull). 

The nuts were used for food in the same way as walnuts. Sugar 
was made from the sap as from Acer species, and also by boiling 
hickory chips. 

Betulaceae 

CoRTLUs ajiericana Walt. Hazelnut. 

Uma (Dakota). Uma-hu, hazel bush. 

['"zhitu/a (Omaha-Ponca). U"zhinffa-hi, hazel bush. 

fluksik (Winnebago). 

The nuts were used for food as were other nuts, being eaten raw 
with honey, or used as body for soup. 

' Dorscy, ^egUia Language, p. 556. 



'^■^''°'"=1 TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 



75 



BETtTi.A PAPTRiFERA Miirsli. Paper or Canoe Rireli. 

Ta-pa (Dakota). Ta"pa-hu, birch tree. Teton dialect Cha-ha sa' 
pale-bark {eha^-ha, bark; sa" pale). ' 

The bark, shredded fine, was bound in bundles for torches. It 
was used also as material for vessels to catch the sap from the 
trees in sugar-making time, and for various household utensils. 

Fagaceae 

QuERcus macrocari'a ;Michx. Bur Oak. 

Uskiiyecha-hu ( Dakota ) . 

Tashka-kl (Oniaha-Ponca). 

Chmhke-hu (Winnebago). 

Patki-natawawi (Pawnee) ; patk!, acorn; natawairi, bearing. 
QuERCus RUBRA L. Red Oak. 

Ufa (Dakota). Uta-hu, oak tree. 

Buude-ki (Omaha-Ponca ) . 

Xahata-pahat (Pawnee), "red-tree" {nahata, tree; pahaf, red). 

Acorns, especially of Qwrrus rubra, were used for food. The 
bitter and astringent properties were extracted by leaching with 
wood ashes, preferably the ashes from basswood. The bark of the 
root of any species of oak was scraped off and boiled and the de- 
coction given for bowel trouble, especially in children. 

ULAfACEAE 

Ulmus AMERICANA L. White Elm, American Elm. 

Pe (Dakota), " the elm "; pe cha", " elm wood "; pe ikcheka, " the 
common elm." 

Esho" 3ko" (Omaha-Ponca), "elm tree," generic name: ezko" zho" 
ska, "white elm" {ska, white). 

Taitsako faka (Pawnee), " white elm " {tnitsako, elm : iaka. white). 

The wood was used for fuel : forked trees were used for the posts 
in building the earth lodge: sections of elm logs were used to make 
huge corn mortars, while the pestles were also made of this wood. 
Smaller mortars and pestles of this wood were made for grinding 
medicines and perfimies. All these uses applied also to the other 
species of elm. 

Ulmus thoma.si Sarg. Rock Elm. 

Pe itazipa (Dakota), "bow elm" {itazipa, bow). 

Ezho" zho" zl (Omaha-Ponca), " yellow elm " (zl, yellow). 

This species and the preceding were both used for saddle trees. 
It would seem from the Dakota name that it was formerly used for 
making bows, but I have no direct information on that point. 



«7g USES OF PL.VNTS BY INDIANS (eth. ann. 33 

Ulmi s KiLVA Michx. Slippery Elm or Red Elm. 

Pe htfutu/m (Dakota), or in Teton dialect pe tutuHu ""pa. 

Ezhu" zhklc (Oniaha-Ponca), "red elm" {zMde, red) or ezJw 
zhide (jthlgtlwlf, "slippery red elm" {gthigthidc, slippery). 

Wakidikidik ( Winnebago) . 

Taitsako pahat (Pawnee), "red elm" {pahat, red). 

The Imrlc, when weathered for several years till it glows with 
l-liosiihorescence in the darkness, was used to catch the spark in fire- 
making. The fresh inner bark was boiled and the resulting decoction 
was drunk as a hi.xative. The Omaha used to cook the inner bark 
with buffalo fat in rendering out the tallow. They considered that 
tlie hark gave a desiral)le flavor to the fat and added a preservative 
rinaiity. preventing it from becoming rancid. When the rendering 
was finished the children always asked for the pieces of cooked 
bark, which they prized as titl)its. 

Tlie inner bark fiber was also used for making ropes and cords. 

Celtis occidf.ntalis L. Tlackberr^'. 

Yammimnufjapi (Dakota), from ynmtiunmiiga, "to crunch," be- 
cause animals crunch its berries. 

Cube (Omaha-Ponca). 

Wake-warutsh (AVinnebago), "raccoon food" {wake, raccoon; 
warutsk, food). 

Kaapsit (Pawnee). 

Omaha informants say the berries were eaten only casually, but the 
Dakota used them as a flavor for meat. For this purpose they 
pounded them fine, seeds and all. When they first saw pepper corns 
of black pepper, and their use as a condiment when ground, they 
likened them to yammimnugapi and so they called black pepper 
yamnumnugapi washichii", "white man's i/ammwinugapi." 

The Pawnee say they pounded the berries fine, added a little fat, 
and mixed them with parched corn. They described the combination 
as very good. 

MORACEAE 

Tox^xoN poMiFERiTji Raf. Osage Orange, Bois d'Arc. 

Zho'^-zi-zhu (Omaha-Ponca). "yellow-flesh wood" (zho", wood; 
2/, yellow; zku, flesh). 

Nakitsku (Pawnee). 

This tree was not native to Nebraska, but its wood was used for 
making bows whenever it could be obtained. It was gotten whenever 
.southern trips were made into its range, which is in the southern 
part of Oklahoma: or it was obtained by gift or barter from the 
tribes of that region. 



GILMOKE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 77 

IIUMULUS AMERICANA Nutt. Hops. 

Char' iijuire (Dakota), but this only means twining, hjuu-e, on a 

tree, cA«". Since its European use in connection witli j-east has 

become laiown to them they call it wahpe onapoKije; u-aKpe, 

" leaves"; oiutpoRye, "to puif np." 

J/aka" skltJve (Omaha-Ponca), "sweet medicine." Since learninjr 

its leavening use it is called in that connection iriuruihiht. 
The Teton Dakota steeped the fruits to make a drink to allay 
fevers and intestinal pains. A part of the root down 3 or 4 feet in 
the ground was called maka^ .skitke., "sweet medicine"; this was 
chewed and applied to wounds, either alone or in combination with 
the root of Phijsalh lanccohta, "the crooked medicine," and that of 
Anemone canadensis, "the little buffalo medicine." 

UliTICACEAE 

Urtica gracilis Ait. Nettle. 

TIaniiga-hi or nuniazhihn-hi (Omaha-Ponca). 

The dried stalks were crumpled in the hands or gently pounded 
with a stone to free the fiber from the woody part. The fii'st method 
was more common. The fiber of nettles was used by Nebraska tribes 
for spinning twine and cordage. Rope of this fiber was generally 
used to hobble horses. It was also used to weave into clotli. It is 
said that cloth of this fiber was used in the .Sacred Bundle of the 
Tent of War. 

Small boys gathered the fiber of this plant to use as wadding for 
their popguns. 

Polygon ACE AE 

EuMEX CRispus L. Sour Dock. 

Shiakipi { Dakota ) . 

Among the Teton Dakota the green leaves, crushed, were bound 
on boils to draw out the suppuration. The Omaha boiled the leaves 
for food as white people do. This plant is naturalized from Europe. 

RuMEX HYMENOSEPALUS Torr. Canaigre. 

Kahts-pirakari or kahU-pilakan (Pawnee), "medicine with many 
children" (kahtsii, medicine: ptra or pUn. chihlren; /'avi, 
many), so called because of the sweet-jiotato-like roots clustered 
at the base of the stem. 
The plant is found indigenous in sandy slopes of river valleys in 
the region of the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma and southwest- 
ward. Since the allotment of their lands in severalty, the Wichita 
and Pawnee are bringing this plant into cultivation. The root is 
used as a remedy for diarrhea. 



lyg tJSES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. ann.33 

C'lIENOrODIACEAK 

CiiKNOPODirM ALiuM L. Lamb's-qiiartcF. 

]y„n/»' tot,, (Dakota), "frroens" (wahpe, leaves; tofo, frreen). 

KitsarluK (Pawnt^e). •• preen juice " (kits, from Vitsu, water, juice: 
IclihiriiiM. fireeii ) . 

This plant is naturalized from Europe, but appears to be so long 
eslabiislied tliat tlie fact of its introduction seems now unknown to tlie 
Indians. Amonp the Teton Dakota and the Omaha this jilant, while 
yoiinj: and tender, was cooked as pottage. A Pawnee informant 
sail] that it is so used now by the Pawnee, not in former times. It 
was used in old times by the Pawnee for painting bows and arrows 
green. 

XvCTAOIXACEAE 

.Vr.i.ioNTA NYfTAGiNEA Miclix. Wild l"\)ur-o'clock. 

Poiple (Dakota). 

Maka"-w(Uiek (Omaha-Ponca). "'strong medicine" {m(ika\ medi- 
cine; irasek, strong). 

Kahtstakat (Pawnee), "yellow medicine" (kahts, from kahtsu, 
medicine; titku/, yellow). 

T?v the Teton Dakota the root was boiled to make a decoction to 
drink in case of fever. Together with roots of Echinacea angusti- 
folia it was boiled to make a vermifuge. The prescription for this 
purpose required the drinking of it four nights at bedtime, after 
which, at the ne.xt evacuation, the worms would be voided. My in- 
foiiuant. Fast Morse, of the Oglala tribe, said, "If one has a big 
worm [tape worm?], it comes away, too." Eoots of Allionia and 
/''chiii/icea were also boiled together to make a remedy for swellings 
of arms or legs. When ap])lied, this must always be rubbed down- 
ward on the affected ])arts to redu('e the swelling. Among the Ponka 
tlie root was used as a remedy for wounds, for this purpose being 
chewed and blown into them. Among the Pawnee the dried root, 
ground fine, was applied dry as a remedy for sore moutli in babies. 
A decoction of the root was drunk by women after childbirth to 
reduce abdominal swelling. 

P I ITTOLACCACEAE 

Piivi(tLA('( A AMEitiCAXA L. Pokeberry, Tnkberry, Eedweed. 

'i"he [)lant seems to be unknown to the Omaha, Ponca, and Dakota, 
and known only in recent times to the Oto and Pawnee. It is a 
late introduction from the Eastern States and is reported only from 
the extreme southeastern part of the State. It is rather commcn in 
Oklahoma, whither the Oto, the Pawnee, and most of the Ponca 
have been removed. So far as I was able to learn, thev have there 



oiLMdRE) TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 



79 



used it only for decorative purposes, a red stain obtained from the 
fruit being employed in painting horses and various articles of use 
or adornment. 

NVMPHAEACEA?: 

Xymphaea advena Soland. Large Yellow Pond Lily. 

There is some dialectic variation in the speech of the four tribes 
of the Pawnee Xation. and by one tribe, the Skidi, this plant is 
called tukairla: by another, the Chawi, it is called fut. It is said the 
seeds were cooked for food. This was the information given, but my 
informants may have mistaken this plant for the next one. 

Xeltjmbo lutea (Willd.) Pers. Yellow Lotus, Water Chinquapin. 
(PI. 10.) 

Ten-ape (Dakota). 

Tffhawe (Omaha-Ponca). 

Tsh^rop (Winnebago). 

Tnkawiu (Pawnee). 

This is one of the plants considered to be invested with mystic 
powers. It is an important native food plant, both the seeds and the 
tubers being used. The plant was much sought and highly prized by 
the tribes living within its range. The hard, nutlike seeds were 
cracked and freed of their shells and used with meat for making 
soup. The tubers, also, after being peeled, were cut up and cooked 
with meat or with hominy. It contributes a delicious flavor, unlike 
any other. 

The tubers were harvested by wading into the pond to search for 
them in the mud with the toes. When found, the mud was worked 
away from them with the feet, and they were pulled out by means 
of a hooked stick. In shape and general appearance they nuu-h re- 
semble a small banana. This resemblance between the banana and 
Xelumho tubers was remarked by the Omaha when bananas were first 
brought to their notice, so they were called tethaire er/a:^, " the things 
that look like tethawe,''' which is now the Omalia name of the banana. 
NeJwnho tubers might be cooked when first iiarvested, but to pre- 
serve them for winter use they were dried, being first peeled and 
cut into pieces about an inch long. An anatomical feature of the 
plant body is a ring of tubular air spaces extending longitudinally 
throughout the stem. This characteristic also pertains, naturally, 
to the tubers and gives rise to a droll notion in regard to them. The 
Indians say that one who is digging these tubers must be careful to 
refrain from snuffing through the nostrils, else the cavities of the 
tubers which he digs will become filled with mud and so spoiled. 
Another notion held in regard to this plant is that the ttibers gath- 
ered by a tall man will be long, while a short man will get short 
tubers. 



80 



rsES OF PU^XTS BY IXDUXS [eth, iXN. ss 



The t>»asvs and other western imtives employ the rvn.is [sic] of this plant. 

for fo.Hl preterms theiu by boiUng. . . . Fully rii^e, after a wnsiderable 

JjollltiK thev'be.vn»e as farinaceous, agreeable, and wholesome a diet as the 

,».tato. . .". This «ime si»vi.-s ... is everywhere made use of by the natives, 

who collect botJi the nuts and rvn.ts. » 

Ka n UN cri-\cn.\E 

THAUCTROt DASYCARPFM Fisch. .^ Lall. ^Ieaao^Y Rue. (PI. 11. a.) 

Wasimiui ( Dakota 1: irasi "pine": mmu "to smell." The name 
seems to signify- pinelike odor. 

.VisW.-Ai (Oniaha-I'om-a). " tlute-plant " (nmiJt\ flutel. 

Shuiil-^ or skarik< ^Pawne^^. 

By the Teton Dakota the fruits on approaching maturity in Au- 
pust are broken otT and stored a^vay for their pleasant odor: for 
this purpose they aiv nibl>ed and scattered OYer the clothing. The 
Indians say the effect is enhanced by dampness. This, like all other 
mlors u.Wby Indians, is of slight, evanescent fragranct?. They used 
no heavy scents: all ai-e delicate and give a suggestion of whole- 
someness and of the freedom of the uncontaminated outdoors. 

The hollow stems were used by small boys to make toy flutes 
{lu-yudt). The Ponca sometimes used the tops as loYe charms. 
Bachelors rublied the tops with sjiliva in the palms of the hands to 
give them power to capture the affections of the desired maidens by 
shaking hands with them. My informants sjiid the plants of this 
species growing m Minnesota ai-e better thaii those found in Ne- 
brasica. 

The Pawnees used this plant as a stimulant for horses, causing 
them to snuff it into the nostrils when obliged to make forced 
marches of three or four days' duration in order to escape from 
enemies. For this purpose it was administered by rubbing it mixed 
with a ^-ertain white clay on the muzzle of the horse. 
PiTj^ATiLLA PATENS ^L.) Mill. Pasipie Flower. Twin-flower. (,P1. 
1, fl.) 

IlokshJ-chel'pa icaficlui (Dakotiil. "Twin-flower." 

As a counter-irritant for tise in rheimiatism and similar diseases 
the leaves of PuL^atilh were crushed and applied to cause a blister. 
This information was given by an old man of the Omaha tribe. 

The people of the Dakota Nation call this plant by a name in their 
language which means " twin-flower," because usually each plant 
bears just two flowering scapes. Indians generally are keenly ob- 
servant of all things in nature and reverent toward them. They 
have reverence and affei'tion for the living creatures, the birds and 
beasts, the trees and shrubs and flowering plants. They have stories 
and songs about mi^t of the plant and animal forms of life with 

' Nattall, Flora of Arkansas Territory, p. 160. 



• SE> J C= *' 











:i«Wi«»n. 



/ »m 0-Mk^ 



a^. ■■ •-■■^ !'■■- ■ K- ',r. Vv* .j;;, -,/ ,'/-X.-.^ f^rtJsu 

« «wy/w*<p*yj I// f^,> =^ ' i^ ■> • >. ;f»vW3 U, tt* *»wL Aft*r 

t/, Jil^yw • -Jr»*», ariiftjr;?*^ ** f>^ ^<>^. 'Xf** ?y*i^ '/f Uwc Twjft- 

ft'/)»«!r, * -^ *A *. 'iinUi, iu»^i Tli,iitii Hut', uirK tn tors t«adwai 

t// >ir« jf,'*;.-- • ■,:■'■'.,- 

'Vii*', N»n.ti^/tt lA ** r«viv<i>^i/ iMMhn^ th« pipe ^ i» sa alhMMiii to s 
ffXtv/^'^ s^A ''^ »'/rrf<ip, 'X'MM'/'/t »** «K»J <;*r*T«r<rjianj asd the 
j/»j/* mi0A i^. >'/it^n'^Kt*A a* a k^ryJ '/f ';^*»;r. 'iT'<* "si^rti^ »a* p<«tt' 
«i»Il/ Witi'J UiT4,ttyt,\\j r<;jif»f'Wl ** iAiA^ttrr </t aiJ JiTjftjf Utititpt, all 
ffUtftA, Mtttintlx. tit^ 'uMtOktt \^Si%'.. Tit*'- nkj Utumn^. wa* nfcu-ded 
aA fatJ*^, iM#<J ti* (^»r'im*l Pviftta a>. tf<* PaU«* of aj/j/fya/^rt. of tt^. 
ytratrrx whi/i/ *r* aJJ aio"* '>« «» U<w worW- M*n i* rvX apart trina 
ttttr TiiiinK unX'tr^. \^A a |/art r>f ftat///*;, AJI iiy^i tinntpt $u iiMtan 
ui*, ha. frm^U af*/J kjwl/*/!, w<4 }** jIj^ajJ/I f/*, iri*cttti\y witii alL 

/ft tl<* ^>r/.*^<* trjU, *fA ifT'A/niAy alv/ <ft 'Xl.*;r t^»^^., I'^ih'ifHU 
bad ttt^A\rAtt»\ 't».. \u '»*»9t '/f rt<*«//iat«ift a».d ;*««fal;p* ih.* fn**» 
7«B«* Ji> %;»T»f — « 



g2 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. annm 

leavi-s of PuhatilU are crushed and applied on the surface over the 
affec-te<l part. It acts as a counter-irritant and will cause a blister 
if left on the skin long enough. My informant especially cautioned 
me tliut it must be used externally, as it would be dangerous and 
harmful if taken internally. 
Ankmonk canadensis L. Anemone, Wind Flower. 

Te-zhiiKja-malca^ (Omaha-Ponca), "little buffalo medicine" (/c, 
buffalo; zhinga, little; rruika", medicine). 

The root of this plant was one of the most highly esteemed medi- 
cines of the Omaha and Ponca. I do not know whether its value 
rested more on real physiological effects or on the gi'eat mystic powers 
a.scribed to it: however, it was prescribed for a great many ills, es- 
jK'cially wounds, by those who had the right to use it. It was ap- 
plied e.'tternally and taken internally, and was used also as a wash for 
sores affecting the eyes or other parts. The right to use this plant be- 
longed to tiie medicine-men of the Te-sinde gens. To touch a buffalo 
calf was taboo to this gens: hence the name of the plant, "little buf- 
falo medicine." My informant, Amos Walker, of the Te-sinde gens 
of the Omaha, said that the plant is male and female, and that the 
flower of the male plant is white and that of the female red. 

Anemone c^xindrica A. Gray. Long-fruited Anemone. 
Wathtbaba-nmka" (Ponca), "playing-card medicine." 
Some Ponca used the woolly fruits of this j^lant as charms for 

good luck in playing cards, rubbing their hands in the smoke arising 

from burning some of the fruits and also nibbing the palms with the 

chewed fruit when about to engage in a card game. 

Aqun-EGiA canadensis L. Wild Columbine. (PI. 11, h.) 
Inubtho"-kithe-sahe-hi (Omaha-Ponca), "black perfume plant" 
{inuhtho", fragrant; kithe, to make, to cause; sabe, black; hi, 
plant). 
Skalikdfit or Skartkatit (Pawnee), "black-seed" (skaU. seed; 

katif, black). 
The seeds are used by Omaha and I'onca, especially by bachelors, 
as a perfume. To obtain the odor the seeds must be crushed, a result 
which the Ouiaha commonly get by chewing to a paste. This paste is 
spread among the clothes, where its fragrant quality persists for a 
long time, being ])erceptible whenever dampened by dew or rain. 
Among the Pawnee the seeds are used for perfume and as a love 
charm. In cases of fever and headache the seeds are crushed with an 
elm-wood pestle in a mortar hollowed out of the same wood. The 
resulting powder is put into hot water and the infusion is drunk. 
For use as a love charm the pulverized seeds are rublxnl in the palms, 
and the suitor contrives to shake hands with the desired one, whose 



""■"""^l TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS gO 

fancy it is expected will thus be captivated. Omaha girls were 
somewhat in fear of the plant because of this supposed property and 
because, further, too strong a whiff of the odor was thought to 'cause 
nosebleed. On this account Omaha swains took delight \n playfully 
frightening girls by suddenly thrusting some of the powder "under 
their noses. 

Bkrhekidaceae 

Caulophyllum THALicTiioiDEs ( L. ) Michx. Blue Cohosh. 
Zhu-nakcula-tan.ga-nuika" (Omaha-Ponca), " great fever medicine " 
(sAw, flesh; nakada, hot; tam/a, great; maka", medicine). Zhu- 
nakada, literally " hot flesh," is the Omaha word for " fever." 
A decoction of the root was given for fevers. This was considered 
the most effectual febrifuge known to the Omaha. 

Menispermacelae 

Menispermum canadense L. Moonseed. 
ImjthaJie-hazi-i-ta (Omaha-Ponca), " thunder grapes " {ingthake, 
thunder; ha^L grapes; /, they; ta, genitive sign). Another name 
of Menispermum among the Ponca is Wa7ia''ha Juizl ttai, 
"grapes of the ghosts" {ivan<t."h.a, ghost or shade or spirit; h^isi, 
grapes). 
Wmmghi-haz (Winnebago), literally " gliost fruit," or "fruit of 

the ghosts or shades." 
Hakakut (Pawnee), " Sf>re mouth" (h-akaii, mouth; kut, sore). 
The several tribal names suggest the sinister character ascribed to 
this plant. 

Papaveraceae 

Sanguinaeia canadensis L. Bloodroot. (PI. 12.) 

Minigathe makcV^ u-au (Omaha-Ponca), "woman-seeking medi- 
cine." 
PeK-hishuji (Winnebago). The first member of this compound 
means " gourd," and the second, " to make red " : hence the name 
probably refers to the use of the plant for reddening gourd 
rattles in ancient time, though I have never seen a rattle of 
modern time so decorated. 
For the purpose of dyeing red the root of this plant was boiled 
with the materials to be dyed. For a love charm a bachelor of tlie 
Ponca after rubbing some of the root on his palm would contrive 
to shake hands with a girl he desired; if successful in this, after five 
or six days she would be found willing to marry him. From tliis use 
comes the Omaha-Ponca name of the plant. It was said to be used 
sometimes also as a decorative skin stain. 



84 USES OF PL.\NTS BV INDIANS [eth. ansss 

Saxifkagaceae 

GRasstXAUiA MissorniENsis (Xutt.) Cov. & Biitt. Wild Gooseberry. 

WhhnKih'shlca (I)iikotii); Yankton dialect, vichakrMska; Teton 
diali'Ct. ir/rhaf/iuiJ<hk(i. 

I'lzi (Oiiiiilia-Ponca). 

Haz-ponoponoh (Winnehago), "crunching fruit" {haz, fruit; 
l>onoi>oni)H, cruncliiiijr). 

Tlie l)(>rries of this plant were used for food in their season. A 
chilthen's game was described among the Omaha in which the chil- 
dren were counted off into two parties. I'^ach individual of both 
parties was given a portion of the acidulous unripe berries which 
he must try to eat without making a grimace. The party less suc- 
cessful in this ordeal had to pay a forfeit to the victorious party 
or to execute some performance for their amusement, as for instance, 
to liop on one foot .so many steps backward. 

RiHKs AMERiCANTM Mill. Wild Rlack Currant. 

Vhap-ta-haza (Dakota). "Beaver-berries,'' from chapa-ta-haza 
{ehapa, beaver: haza, berry; fa, genitive sign). 

Pezi nut/a (Omaha-Ponca) ; pezi, gooseberry; nuga, nuile. 

An Omaha said a strong decoction of the root is made to drink as 
a remedy for kidney trouble. .V Winnebago medicine-man said the 
root of the black currant is used by women lor uterine trouble. 

ROSACEAE 

FuAGAHiA \ iKdiMANA Duclicsne and F. Americana (Porter) Britton. 
Wild Strawberry. (PI. 13, a.) 
Wazku-shtecha (Dakota). Wazhushtt'cha-hu, strawberry vine. 
Wazhushtecha aha wi, the moon when strawberries are ripe, 
June (■s/i/^'. red; wl, moon, lunar month). 
Baskte (Omaha-Ponca). Bashte-Ju, strawberry vine. 
Ilaz-xhchek (Winnebago) ; has, fruit. 
A paru-huradit (Pawnee), " ground berry" («/>«/•;/, berry : huradu, 

ground). 
All the tribes were fond of wild strawberries and luxuriated in 
them in their season, but the fruit was too juicy to lend itself to 
the process of drying successfully for winter use. Young leaves 
of the plant were infused to make a beverage like tea by the Winne- 
bago. 

Runes occiDENTALis L. and R. strioosis Michx. Wild Raspberry. 
Taka"he<ha (Dakota). 7'rt/,a"A<'r>Aff- Am, raspberry bush. 
A (/thamWgi ( Onuiha-Ponca ) . 
Aparu (Pawnee), berry. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY TH I RTY-THI RD A NNUAL REPORT PLATE 12 




.1. SANGUINARIA CANADENSIS, DETAIL 

Photo by courtesy of Public Museum of Milwaukee. 
Department of Education 










(.. SANGUINARIA CANADENSIS, HABIT 

Plioto by cuurtciy of Department of Botany. Iowa State Agricultural College 



UREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY TH I RTY-TH I RD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 13 




a. WILD STRAWBERRY NATIVE TO WILD MEADOWS OF NEBRASKA 




ft VV_t.-.A,l UK THE TETON DAKOTA POUNDING CHUKECH ERKI Ei IPADUS MELANO- 
CARPA; TO DRY FOR WINTER SUPPLY 



""•'"'■"'I TAXOXOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 35 

All tlie tribes iiscl the berries for food, fresh in season, or dried 
for winter use. Young lea\es were steeped to make a drink like tea. 

According to an Omaha informant the root was used medicinally* 
for which purpose it was scraped and l.oile.l: the decoction was 
given to children as a remedy for bowel trouble. 
Rosa i-ratincola Greene. AVild Rose. 

0»zhi''zhi"tka (Dakota). O^zhi'-zhrtka-hu, losebush. 

Wazhidti (Omaha-Ponca ) . 

Pahatu (Pawnee), red. 

There are several species of Rosa in Nebraska, the most conunon 
being Rom pratincola, the prairie rose. The fruits are sometimes 
eaten to tide over a period of food scarcity. An amusing instance 
is told in the Omaha tribe of a time when the people were without 
food and no game could be found. A man had been laboriously 
gathering for his family a supply of wild rose fruits. After he 
had a considerable quantity a man was seen returning with the 
carcass of a deer he had been able to kill. At once the rose fruits 
were cast away in prospect of the much more excellent food which 
had come to hand. 

It is said that the inner bark of the ro.sebush was sometimes used 
for smoking, either alone or mixed with tobacco. 

The Pawnee say there are sometimes large, brown liypertropliied 
growths on the lower part of the stems, which, when charred by 
fire and crushed to powder, were applied as a dressing to burns. 

A wash for inflammation of the eyes was made by steeping the 
fruits, according to information from the Omaha. 

THE .SON(; OF TH?: WILD ItOSE 

The following is a translation into English out of the Dakota 
language, by Dr. A. McG. Beede, of an old Dakota song. The people 
of the Dakota Nation, and other tribes also, think of the various 
plant and animal species as ha\ ing each their own songs. With these 
people music — song — is an expression of the S(hi1 and not a mere 
artistic exercise. 

Where the word " Mother " appears in the following song it refers 
to '■ Mother Earth," a living, conscious, holy being in Indian thought. 
The earth was truly venerated and loved by these people, who con- 
sidered themselves not as owners or potential owners of any part of 
the land, but as being owned by the land which gave them birth and 
which supplied their physical needs from her bounty and satisfied 
their love of the beautiful by the beauty of her face in the landscape. 

The trilled musical syllables at the close of the last two stanzas 
express the spontaneous joy which comes to a person who has " life- 
appreciation of Holy Earth," 



gg USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS |kth.a.nx.33 

The first stanza is an introduction by the narrator, not a part of 
the " Sonp of the Wihl Rose." The remaining stanzas are the song 
of the Wihl Rose itself: 

I will tell you of siiiiietliitiK I know. 
Ami you can't half IniaRlne how good; 
It's the sont; of wHil roses that grow 
In tbe land the Dakota-folk love. 

rroui the heart of the .Mother we come. 

The kind .Mother of I.ife and of All : 

And If ever you think she is dumb. 

You should know that tlowers are her songa. 

And all ireature-s that live are her songs. 
And all creatures that die are her songs. 
And the winds blowing by are her songs. 
And she want.s you to sing all her songs. 

lilke the purple in Daydawn we come. 
And our hearts are so brimful of joy 
That whene'er we're not singing we hum 
Tl-li-ii-li-i. ta-la-ia-loo, ta-la-la-loo ! 

When a maiden is ready to weil 
Pin wild roses all over her dress. 
And a rose in the hair of her head; 
Put new moccasins onto her feet. 
Then the heart of the Motiier will give 
Her the songs of her own heart to sing: 
And she'll sing all the moons she may live. 
Ti-li-ll-Ui. ta-la-la-loo, ta-la-la-loo! 

Maltts ioensis (AVood) IJritton. Crab Apple. 

She (Omaha-Ponca) ; sk<;-hi, apple tree; .•^/tc-zhv". applewood: 
sh^-m, apple seed. 

The crab apple was used for food by tribes having acquaint- 
ance with it. The Omaha and Ponca knew it as being found in the 
Oto countrj' along the Missouri, in the southeast part of Nebraska. 
They said it is found nowhere west or north of this except on one 
creek which flows into the Niobrara River from the south at about 
the line between Knox and Holt Counties, 150 or 200 miles from any 
other locality where trees of this species grow. This would seem 
to indicate a case of plant migration by human agency, the occa- 
sion i)eing the dropping in camp, in some place favorable for germi- 
nation, of fruits or viable seeds brought with camp supplies ob- 
tained on a trip of considerable but not at all unusual distance to 
the southeast. 



'''"-♦"««:' TAXOSOMIC LIST OF PLAXTS 87 

Ckataetjcs CHKisfX-ABfA A.she. E«;d Haw. 

yv^/za" ( Omafia-Ponca ) . 

(.'honfi^ir.a (Winnebaffo). 

Tlie fruit wab .^onietirnes used for food, but rommonly resorted to 
only as a famine foofL 

Amelaxchiee AL.VIFOLIA Xutt. June Berrj-. SaskatfXin, 

H 'ipazuka { Dakota ) . 

Zfuj'' flwhi fOmaha-Ponra). "gray wfxxl " (2A0". wo^xl; /;u//«. 
gray). 

IIn.z-Hhut.nh (Winnebago), "red-fruit" (}mz, fruit: nhuUh. refl). 

The berries were prized for frxxl. The woofj was u.^d for arrow- 
ehafts.' 

Pbunus ameeicaxa ilarsh. Wild Plum. 

KaHa (Dakota), plum: ka'fe-hu. plum tree. 

Ka^dc (Omaha-Ponca), plum: ko'de-fu. plum tree. 

Kanfik (Winnebago), plum: hnrdnK-hu. plum tree. 

Niwafuirit (Pawnee), plum: Xiirah/irit-naJumpi, plum tree. 

The fruit was highly valued for fo<jd, Ijeing eaten fresh and raw or 
cooked as a sauf-e. The plums were also dried for winter use. They 
were commonly pitted before drying, but the Pawnee say they often 
dried them without removing the pits. 

The Omaha planted their com, beans, and squashes when the wild 
plum came into bloom. 

A broom for sweeping the floor of the dwelling was made by bind- 
ing together a bundle of plum twigs. The plum was used Ijecause of 
its toughness and elasticity. 

An Omaha informant said the bark of the roots, after being scraped 
and boiled, was applied as a remedy for abrasions of the skin. 

Sprouts or young growths of the wild plum are u.sed by the Teton 
Dakota in making ij-au''ya''pi. This is an offering or form of prayer, 
consi.sting of a wand, made preferably from a wild-plum sprout 
peeled and painted. If painted, the design and color are emblematic. 
Near the top of the wand is fastened the offering proper, which may 
take the form of anything acceptable to the higher p<iwers. A small 
quantity of smoking tobacco is an article very frequently used for this 
purpo.se. No matter how small a portion of the thing offered is used, 
the inmiaterial self of the substance is in it. Such offerings are 
u.sually made for the benefit of the sick. WaWya^jn may be made by 
anyone at any place if done with appropriate ceremony, but the most 
efficient procedure is to prepare an altar with due ceremony and there 
set the wand upright with the offering fastened near the top.- 

> RIgeH. Dakota-Kngllfh Dictionary, p. 578. 

= For this lnforni.itlon I am Indebted to Dr. J. K. Walker. Oovemment physldan at 
Pine Ridge, who has made very careful research Into the ceremonlen and rituaU of the 
Teton Dakota. 



gg t^ES OF PLiSTS BY lyDIASS :irr= i^s.E 

PEors BE95rri Biilej. Sand Cherry. (PL li) 

Jc<'v<>'J/'« <Dakoc*». The Dakota hare a saving that 

gaiherinff cherries moves in the direction contrary t. — 

the cherries will be good and sweet. bat mi the other hand if he 
movtt^ with the wind the cherries will be bitter and astringent. 
The name ac^yeyapi express^ this idea. 
So*f-i t'jn^'j (Omaha-Ponca >. ~hig cherry." 
Ku4 ip-jar\i htani-f t Pawnee)!. - cberry-atting-hiding ~ iku$. 

cherry: ap^tarv, titling: L-etamt-if. hiding*. 
PrvmHt >,t*se>/i is peculiarly indigenoos to the Sand H 

Nebraska. The bush is smalL varying in height as the ,-.:-. . 

favorable or unfavorable to vegetation frcmi less than 1 foot to 2i feet. 
The fruits are purpliih-black. IJj to -2 cm. in diameter, exceedingly 
proli&r and varying in qoality. some bodies bearing fmit somewhat 
asmng«it, others very desrable frail. 

All the trit«s to whom the sand cherries wer- 
ose of than ioi food as a saac« during their :. - _ 
laid op stores of them iac wim^r by drying as the 

-\n O^t. ■ - ' ^'--^se charies produce fruit only a;.-, .. - „ . ^ 

years. 

Padxts xa.va Ltz Soil Eoemer. ChcfcedierTy. tPL 13. ?-. > 
Cha^ (Dakota). 

^naha-Ponca \ . - little cherry ~ i r rrj » . 

"f < Pa wTiee »: rKii<wr««*. cherry : r^e. 

certain . ' 

riroais is ~r.. i--. nr.o sr . :_.—.:.-. I' >::' 

of-har-i pftrfonnacsass ^ i used. It is 

J - xhn —■-::.=■ : \:.- : ' 
z->jrL ~ Tbe-XDomh-v: . 

The fcrcit was eaten with r: 

•-r ose. The gat?_- . . 

' lise rBdinunit 
-T.r'-i-_- i^ocg which tb* :-— .^ -• -r- \ .zr. -.'..'.. 
mto camp aiid worked at pireparing the cherries wh: 
nniil as zreat a cuantity as wis r^ioii^ f:fXi\A be mi - 

the pits were too anall to \^ removed by anr xn^fxi - 

chetries were pocrded to a pulp, pits and alL oa ». 
ifier bting ^iapei into anal! cakes, were laid ooi t. 
-^ favorite ifjfA preparation of tLe 7 jwi/i. . ■- 

miean c«- miijoar»=at. the dried ct£:T7 . \:j: fmii f 



""-"'""^l TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS §9 

The time of the Sun dance was deternuned hv the ripening of the 
cherries. It began on tiie first day of the full moon when cherries 
were ripe. 

A Ponca informant told me that a decoction of cherrv hark was 
taken as a remedy for diarriiea. Another informant of the same 
tribe said a spoonfid of the dried fruit very finely pulverized and 
infused in hot water was used as a remedy for the same ailment. 

According to the latter informant, trappers washed their traps 
with water in which this bark had been boiled, in order to remove 
the scent of former captures. 

Padus melanocarpa (A. Xelson) Shafer. Western Cliokecherry. 

All that has just been said of Padus nana as to tribal nomenclature 
and uses applies ecpially to Padus mdanoearpa. 

Mimosackae 

Acuan illixoexsis (Michx.) Kuntzo. Spider-bean. 

Pczhe gamtho (Omaha-Pouca). " rattle plant" {pezhe. plant. herb; 

gasatho, rattle). 

Atikatsatsiks (Pawnee) , " spider-bean " (atit, bean ; tsatsiks, spider ; 

ka, inside). Ati{t)ka t.satsiks. Another name given is kit-sit- 

saris, "■ bad plant "' {kits, plant: ts/f saris, bad). A'ifs!(fsi)t.saris. 

When mature the entire plant with its persistent pods filled with 

seeds was used by little boys as a rattle when in play tliey mimicked 

some of the dances of their people. 

The Pawnee boiled the leaves to make a wash to apply as a remedv 
for the itch. 

Caesalpi n I ac?:ae 

GTMNOCLAors DioiCA ( L. ) Kocli. Kentucky Coffee-tree. 

WaRnaKna (Dakota). 

Aa^tita ( Omaha-Ponca ) . 

Na" pa^kakanuk (Winnebago ) . 

Tokiits (Pawnee). 

By the Dakota, Omaha, Ponca, Winnebago, and Oto the bark of 
the root after being dried was pulverized and, mixed with water, 
was used as a rectal injection in obstinate cases of constipation, for 
which it was said to be an infallible remedy. This remedy was u.sed 
from time immemorial. Prior to contact with Europeans the In- 
dians made their own syringes, an animal bladder being used for the 
bulb and a hollow cylindrical bone, as the leg bone of a prairie 
chicken, turkey, goose, or other bird, was used for the tube. The 
bulb was attached to the tube by sinew wrapping. Wiien the pul- 
verized bark was put into the water its action was carefully noted 



90 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth, ann.33 

for a prognostication of the event. If tlie powder on touching the 
water started to circle to the right and gradually mixed, it was 
taken as a good omen for the recovery of the patient, but if the 
powder settled (|uietly to the bottom it was considered an omen of 
his death. A man whom I knew in the Omaha tribe had a very 
bad t-a.'* of constipation, which was finally given up by the medicine- 
men of his own tribe, as they could not relieve him. A medicine-man 
of the Oto tribe, who was there on a visit, let it be known that he 
could cure the case, so he was called in and had complete success. 
One of the Omaha medicine-men. White Horse, wondered at the re- 
markable efficacy of the Oto remedy, purchased the secret, paying the 
Oto a horse and $iiO in money for knowledge of this remedy, which 
he afterward imi)arted to me. 

The pulverized bark of the root, if snuffed, causes uncontrollable 
sneezing. On account of this property it was used as a stimulant 
when a person was very sick and seemed near death, as in case of 
coma. If on application of the powder to the nostrils, the patient 
did not sneeze it was thought there was no hope of recovery. A 
Pawnee informed me that the dry pod of the plant, pulverized, was 
used to cause sneezing for the relief of headache. 

The Pawnee roast the seeds and eat them as chestnuts are eaten. 
A Winnebago said the seeds after being pounded in a mortar were 
used for food. 

A Santee Dakota said the root was sometimes used for making 
a black dye, but that it was not very good for the purpose. It was 
used as a dyestuff together with some component unknown to my in- 
formant. He said the root alone was without value. 

The seeds are u.sed by the Winnebago for counters or tally checks 
in gambling. 

Fabace.ak 

Baitisia bracteata Ell. Black Rattle-pod. 

Tdika shande nuga (Omaha-Ponca). male fdika shande; also 
called f/matho, rattle. 

P'lra-har'i (Pawnee) ; from pirau^ children, and kari, many. 

The first Omaha-Ponca name refers to the likeness of this plant 
to Goopninuu/ii crcKsicarpum, which is called tdika shande. Baptisia, 
being classed as similar to that but larger, more robust, is considered 
male. The second name refers to its use by small boys as a rattle 
when they i)lay at having a dance. Pawnee boys used it in the same 
way. The Pawnee after pulverizing the seeds mixed the powder 
with buffalo fat as an ointment to be applied for colic by rubbing 
on the abdomen. 



GILMOEE] TAXONOMIC r.IST OF PLANTS gj 

Thermopsis rhombifolia (Xutt.) Richards. False Lupine. 

The flowers of this phuit were dried and used in fumigation, that 
is, the smoke treatment, for rheumatism, especially inflammatory 
rheumatism. The method of treatment was to mix tiie dried flowers 
with hair and burn the mixture under the affected part, confining the 
smoke and heat with a close covering. It is said that this treatment, 
with this remedy, reduces the swelling at once and relieves the pain. 

Melii.otus alra Desv. and M. oi ficinaus (L.) Lam. Sweet Clover. 

Warha''ffa vycchecha (Dakota): iniilyi"<j<t. sweet grass; h/c- 
ehccJui, similar. 

Melilotus was introduced by the Europeans. Seeds probably 
came from the east among the effects of the early missionaries, 
for it first appeared on the grounds of the Pi-esbyterian mi.s.si()n on 
the Omaha Reservation, which was built in lS.-)()-.')7. The Omaha 
coming to the mission observed this plant, which had newly found its 
way into their country with the white men. They noticed that its 
odor resembled that of Sarastann odorata^ which they venerated and 
used in religious ceremonies. They were pleased with its odor, and 
since it was perhaps associated in their minds with the white man's 
religion, owing to its presence at the mission, they gathered bunches 
of it because of its pleasant odor, which they carried to their iionies. 
Thus the plant was scattered all over the reservation, so that there 
is a more thorough distribution of it in that county than in any 
other part of the State that I have seen. The Dakota also are fond 
of the plant's odor and liken it to Sarastamt, hence their name for it. 
They gather bunches of Melilotus to hang in their houses for its 
fragrance. 

Astracalus carolixiaxa L. Little Rattle-pod. 

Ga"satho (Omaha-Ponca), rattle. 

When ripe, the stalks with their persistent pods were used by 
small boys as rattles in the games in which they imitated the tribal 
dances, hence the Omaha-Ponca name signifying " rattle." No other 
use was found for the plant except to serve as a kind of mat on which 
was laid the fresh meat in course of butchering on the prairie, so that 
it might be kept free from dirt. 

A decoction of the root was used among the Teton Dakota as a 
febrifuge for children. 

Geoprumnon crassicarpum (Xutt.) Rydb. Buffalo Pea, Ground 
Plum. 

Ptc ta wofe (Dakota), " food of buffalo " {lAe, buffalo; wote, food; 
to, genitive sign). 



92 ^SKS OF PL..N1^ BY IXmAKS >— - 

, ,-. 1 1' m.", \ ■ cilled also iramide weniffthe from 

T.m.. ' -f „.|*:;i^- , • :''i, i;,t n,ea„. "se^l " in .Ije sense 

r,;':^:, de:;:™7ior p,„n.i„g. ..,-,«« -...ns -so^eUnng .o 

„, ,l,i. pl.,„.. >vh.eh »re '»™\ '^.,;;„X, , b«n s.,lh.,ently so.ked 
""■'" ""," " "iT .T clt°l t "iL -re .hr„.n a«„y. So 

preparation of seeil coin, it ^\ab an oiu 

'' .t'C'"«> —■<■«'•'"" ' " - "»' " "" '"^"■•■'"'■'" "' ■■ " "'■ "'""■ 

cine " among the Clnppe\va.= 

Glyctrhiza LEPitxrrA Pursh. Wild Licorice 

HW.W./ (Dakota), "jealous woman" i"''- ~';-;C:';v^S^ 
ous) . The name is said to have been suggested by tlu bui-., ^vhicli 

" take hold of a man." 
Pithah^itumkifshuhast (Pawnee). , ,, ■ i, 

\mot the Teton Dakota a poultice for sore backs of horses is made 
b^ ch'fng he leaves of this plant. For toothache the sutierer chews 
L ,ot Tnd holds it in the mouth. The Indians s.iy ''It ta 

rom^ at first, but after a while it becomes sweet." The leaves aft.r 
li?:^s;^eped are applied to the ears for earache. A decoction of the 
root is used as a remedy for fever in children. 

P.oRAi,F.A EscrxEXTA Pursh. Pommo Blanche. Tipsin. (Pis. lo, 16.) 
Ti/m" or tip.v''na (Dakota) : Teton diuk-ct, t/ps>"la. 
.\uqth,' (Omaha-Ponca). 
Td'olcemhi (Winnebago), hungry. 

Pntsuroka (Pawnee). , 

The roots of this plant were an important item of the Aegetal 
diet of the Plains tribes. After being peeled they were eaten tresh 
and uncooked or cooked. Large quantities were dug in June and 
earlv Julv to peel and dry for the winter food supply. The peeled 
r„„ts were braided in long strings by the tapering ends, as strings ot 
•Tarlic are braided bv the tops. 

The root is both farinaceous and glutinous and seems to form a 
desirable food with a palatable taste characteristic of the bean 

""irowing as this plant does, on the dry prairie in hard ground, 
with the enlargement of the roo t several inches below the surface, it 

• .\,tra\av«'< or,..»(rnr;.«» Is a synonym ..f (JropnimnoH c.assioarpum (Nutt.) Rydb. 
sDoDBmorp, Chlppewtt Music— II, pp. 03-G4. 



BUREAU OF AMEPICAfJ CTHtJOLOGY Thisty Tw 3- . .;. 

^ ' -^ *• * 'JA_ ---s'S" Plat 




HERBARIUM SPECIMEd OF PSORALEA ESCULE'JTa 'TIPSir., 



THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 16 




SORALEA ESCULENTA (TIPSIN) PEELED AND DRIED TO 
CSERVE FOR WINTER SUPPLY 



GILMOREl TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 93 

is no easy task to harvest it. The top of the ijhmt breaks of[ soon 
after ripening, and is blown away, seatteriiior the seed, so the root 
is then ahnost impossible to find ; hence it must be harvested before 
this occurs. The top usually has three or four branches. When the 
women and children go to the prairie to gather the roots, on finding a 
plant the mother tells the children to note the directions in which the 
several branches point and a child is sent in the general direction of 
each branch to look for another plant, for they say the plants " point 
to each other." 

Psomlea has so important a place in the economy of the Plains 
tribes and has had for so long a time that it enters into tiieir my- 
thoh)gy, folklore, stoi-ies, and sleight-of-hand tricks. In the story 
"How the Big Turtle Went to War," as told in the Omaha tribe, it 
is said lYug^euhW-hlamd, "Psoruha he cooked, they say." ' 

PsoRALEA TENTJIFLORA Pursh. 

T ichanichn-hu ( Dakota ) . 

Among the Teton Dakota the root of this plant, with two others, 
the names of which I did not learn, were boiled together to make a 
medicine to be taken for consumption. (Jarlan<ls were made of the 
tops, to be worn for protection of the head from the heat of the sun 
on very hot days. 

Amokpha fruticosa L. False Tndigo, AVater-string. 

Kifsuhast (Pawnee), "water-string" (k/t><u. water; fuistu, string). 

Whenever possible to obtain it near the butchering place on the 
prairie this shrub was gathered and spread on the ground to receive 
the pieces of meat and keep them clean. 

Amorpha caxescens Pursh. Lead Plant, Shoestring. 

T('-hu"fo"-hi (Omaha-Ponca). "butfalo iiellow plant" (/e, bull'alo; 
huHo", bellow; hi, plant). The name is derived from the fact 
that its time of lilooming is synchi'onous with the rutting season 
of the buffalo, being at that season the dominant l)looming ])lant 
on the prairie of the loess plain. 
The stems were used by the Omaha for a moxa in cases of neuralgia 
and rheumatism. The small stems, broken in short pieces, were at- 
tached to the skin by moistening one end with the tongue. Then they 
were fired and allowed to burn down to the skin. 

An Oglala said the leaves were sometimes used to make a hot 
drink like tea, and sometimes for smoking material. For this jmr- 
pose after being dried and crushed fine they were mixed with a little 
buffalo fat. 

• Dorsey 0eglha Language, p. 256. 



94 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eih.ann.33 

Pak»>«ix.\ knnka.vuha (.Vntt.) Biitton. 

An Ojriiilu infonmint sjiid the root is poisonous. From her de- 
8<Ti|)ti.)n of the eirect I shouhl think it must have a strong narcotic 
eflfect. I have not had an analysis made. 

Paro.xjxa aurka (Nutt.) Britton. 

I'ezhuta i>n (Dakota )." bitter medicine." 

An Ofrhda inforniiiiit .said a decoction of tlie leaves is used for 
colic and dysentery. 

Pktalostf.mum ithpuheum (Vent.) Rydb. Purple Prairie Clover, 
and P. ( AXDHiiM (Willd.) Mich.x. White Prairie Clover. 

WanaKcha (Dakota). 

Mud.;!" .sl,-;tlu (Oniaha-Ponca). This is one of .several plants desig- 
nated as m/ika" sl-'ithe. sweet medicine. 

Klha irUiir-m hawmtat (Pawnee), "broom weed" {kiha, room; 
//iliiruM. broom: huirastatu, weed). Also called kaftfs-pulipatski, 
small medicine (kahis, from kahisu). 

An Opiala said the leaves were sometimes used to make a drink 
like tea. According to a Ponca its root was conmionly chewed for 
its pleasant taste. Although the word maka^ appeai-s in the Omaha- 
Ponca name, no medicinal property is ascribed to this jjlant by these 
tribes so far as known now. The Pawnee name is derived from the 
use of the tough, elastic stems to make brooms with which to sweep 
the lodge. The plant was used in old time by the Pawnee as a 
prophylactic. The root, pulverized, was put into hot water. After 
the sediment settled the water was drunk to keep away disease. The 
sediment was collected in the drinking-shell and carried to a place 
prepared for it, where it was buried with respect. 

(iLvciXK Ai'ios L. Indian Potato. (PI. 17.) 

Mdo (Dakota); Teton dialect, hlo. 

Xu (Omaha-Ponca). 

Tdo (Winnebago). 

Its (Pawnee). 

The tuliers of this plant were utilized for food by all the tribes 
within its range. The.se tubers were prepared by boiling or roasting. 

Apinx tubcrom on the banks of streams and in alluvial bottoms is the true 
fximmr ilc tern- of tlif Krcncli and the modo or wild potato of the Sioux Indians, 
and Is extensively used us an article of diet. ... It should not be con- 
founde<l with the (rround-uut of the South.' 

Many explorers and early settlers of Virginia, New England, and 
New France make mention of the use of Apios^ as food by the 

■ Report of CommlKsloDer of Agriculture for 1870, p. 405. 
" aiycine opioK v/as foriuiTly eall.Hl Apios tuberoaa. 



BUREAU OF AMERICArj ETHNOLOGY TH 1 RTY-TH I RD ANNUAL REPORT PlATEl? 





^^^SSfUk^ML. 


L^ 


^Hk'f^ 


^ ■'" 


1 






^9 i^^^^^/^^ ^^^m ^k ^^^S^B^PI^^I 


^ 


^S^^8i^^^P^0^^^^^^^^^^^^l 



a. VINE OF GLYCINE APIOS (APIOS TUBEROSA) 

Photo by courtesy of Public Museum of Milwaukee, Department of 

Education 




b. TUBERS OF GLYCIiJE APIOS (APIOS TUBEROSA) 



B'jUEAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



IRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 18 




SPECIMEN OF . ■ >SA SHOWING LEAFY BRANCHES WITH PODS AND SMALL 

BEANS PRODUCEO IHLKLo;4 FROM THE PETALIFEROUS FLOWERS, h. LEAFLESS BRANCHES 
WHICH GROW PROSTRATE ON GROUND SURFACE AND FOUR LARGE BEANS PRODUCED 
UNDERGROUND FROM THE CLEISTOGAMOUS FLOWERS OF THESE LEAFLESS BRANCHES 



aiLMOBE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 95 

various tribes in eastern North America, and not a few Europeans 
had recourse to it also for food. 
Le Jeune says : 

They eat, besides, roots, sucli as bulbs of the red lily ; a root which lias a 
taste of licorice; another that our Frem-h people call " Uosary," because it is 
distinguished by tuliers in the form of bends: and some others.' 

The Swedish botanist, Peter Kahn, in his journal, says: 

Hopniss, or Hapniss. was the Indian name of a wild plant which they ate. . . . 
The Swedes in New .Jersey and Pennsylvania still call it by that name, and 
it grows in the meadows in a good soil. The roots resemble potatoes, and 
were boiled by the Indian.s. . . . Mr. Bartram told me tliat tlie Indians who 
live farther in the country do not only eut these roots, which are equal in good- 
ne.ss to potatoes, lint likewise take the peas which lie in the pods of this plant 
and prepare them like conmion peas.' 

Falcata COMOSA (L.) Kuntze. Ground Bean. (PI. 18.) 

Maka ta omnicha., or o^mnichn (Dakota), "jrround beans" (ninl-a^ 
ground; •o^mnicha., beans; ta^ genitive sign). 

Hv'hthl-dbe ( Omaha -Ponca), "beans"; hi"hthi-hi, bean-vines. 

Uoni^h-'hm'je (Winnebago) . 

Ati-huraru (Pawnee), "ground beans" {at'd^ beans; uraru, earth, 
ground; ki(, genitive sign). 

Falcata grows in dense masses of vines over shrubbery and otiier 
vegetation in some places, especially along banks and the edge of 
timber. It forms two kinds of branches, bearing two forms of 
flower, producing two different fruits. Leafy branches climb over 
siirubbery, but under these, in the sliade, prostrate on the eartii, start- 
ing out from tlie base of the main stem, are leafless, colorless brandies, 
forming a network on the surface of the ground. On the.se colorless, 
leafless branches cleistogamous flowers form, which pu.sh into the 
earth and there produce each a single bean closely invested by a 
membranaceous jjod. Each of these beans is fi'om 10 mm. to 17 mm. 
in long diameter, inclined to be flat, and from 5 mm. to 10 mm. 
thick. The pods produced from the petaliferous flowers on tlie 
upper leafy branches of the vine are 15 mm. to 20 nun. long and 
contain four or five dark, mottled^ diminutive beans alx)ut the size 
of lentils. No attention is paid to these small aerial beans, but the 
large subterranean beans were eagerly sought as an article of food 
on account of their agreeable taste and nutritive value. From these 
qualities they contributed a considerable item in tiie dietary of the 
tribes. 

Voles dig them and garner them into hoards of a pint or more in 
a place, and the women would appropriate part of the voles' stores 

1 Le Jeune's " Relation," In Jemit Relations, vol. vi, p. 273. 

= Peter Kalm, Travels into North America, vol. i, pp. 385-386. 



96 USES OF PIJ^NTS BY INDIANS [f.tu. A.vsf. S3 

to tlu-ir own use. Tl.o Pawnee formerly inhabited the larger part 
of N.-l,n.sku with villages on the Loup, the Platte, and the Republi- 
ean River-. In isT.". thev were removed to Oklahoma, where they 
now resi.le. Mr. James K. Murie, of that tribe, in a letter of Febru- 
ary 1.1. l!»i:{. referring to Fiilrutu. a specimen of which had been sent 

iiini, sitid : 

W,- .nil tli.Mii alikunini . . . Tlie I'lnvnoes iite tlu'in. In winter time the 
women rnl.li.Ml nits' [sic I nests iin.l si„t l)iK piles of them. .NOwiuUiys when 
the ..I.I w.iinun see lima beaas tliey say they look like atikuraru in Nebraska. 

Women of the Dakota Nation say that they not only obtained the 
large ground beans of this species, garnered by the voles, or " wood 
mire." but that they also gathered the small beans produced in large 
<iuantity on the upi)er branches of the same vine from petaliferous 
blos.sonis. These smaller beans are about the size of lentils. The 
large lieans. produced from cleistogamous blossoms on leafless 
bi-aiiches spreading prostrate on the ground under the cover of the 
upper branches, are about the size of lima beans, and grow at a depth 
of an inch or two under the ground in the manner of peanuts. 

A most interesting item in coimection with this food plant is the 
statement of the women of the Dakota Nation that they did not take 
the ground beans from the stores of the little animals which gathered 
them without giving some food commodity in return. They said it 
was their custom to carry a bag of corn with them when they went 
to look for the stores of beans gathered by the animals, and when 
they took out any beans they put in place of them an equal quantity 
of corn. They say that sometimes instead of corn they put some 
other form of food acceptable to the animals in place of the beans 
which they took away. They said it woidd be wicked to steal from 
the animals, but they thought that a fair exchange was not robbery. 

Kather De Smet, the indefatigable Christian missionaiy to the 
tribes of the upper Missouri, makes the following observation: 

The earth \wa and bean lire also delicious and nourishing roots [sic], found 
(■..iiiiniinly In low and alluvial lands. The above-named roots form a con- 
slderublp portion of the .sustenance of these Indians dnrinf; winter. They 
Keek them In the places where the mice and other little animals, in particular 
the K''ound-.s(iuirrel. have piled them in heaps.' 

PiiASKoi.rs \Ti.0ARis Tj. Garden Bean. 

O'mn'irhd (Dakota). 

Hi''hthl"(je (Omalia-Ponca). 

Iloni"li (Winnebago). 

A tit (Pawnee). 

The garden bean in all its many types and varieties is one of the 
gifts of the Western Hemisphere to the world. The earliest ex- 

' Dc pmct, Life and Travels, vol. ii, p. 655. 



on-MOBEl TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 97 

plorers tell of finding them in cultivation amoiifr the tribes of Xorth 
America from Quebec southward throuofh .Mexico and Central Amer- 
ica into most of South America. Dr. D. V. Ilavard says: 

The common kidney bean (PJiaseolus rulf/arU Savi) is a South Anierifaii 
plant . . . The finding of seeds of this species by I'rof. Witmack in the pre- 
historic graves of Arizona, nr.t only complete<l the demonstration of its .\meri- 
can origin l)Ut likewise proved the antiquity of its culture in our own country.' 

In considering the cultivated plants grown by the tribes of Ne- 
braska at the time of the advent of Europeans it is of interest to 
discover the probable region or regions of their origin and first 
domestication. We find the mo.st advanced civilization on the con- 
tinent prior to European invasion was in Mexico and southward. 
In that direction also we find the wild plants most nearly related to 
the species aboriginally cultivated both there and in what is now 
the United States, facts suggesting the probable area inhabited by 
their wild prototypes. Doctor Coulter = reports nine species of the 
genus Ph-fifteolus- indigenous to western Texas, some or all of which, 
judging from their size as he de.scribes them, seem to make promising 
candidates for domestication, and we can conjecture that some of 
these or others farther south were the original of the cultivated va- 
rieties found here. 

Before the coming of white men the Omalia cultivate<l many 
varietie^s of beans of different sizes and colors, both bush beans and 
climbing beans. The pole beans they called hi"Othi''f/e a-TrWlhi" 
{hi"hthi"(/c, bean; am.o''thl'\ walking). Bush beans were called 
hi''hthi"ge mo^fhi" nzhi, "bean not walking" {azhi, not). Since 
their old order of life and industries have been broken up by the 
incursion of Europeans they have lost the seed of a number of varie- 
ties which they formerly grew, but I have found four varieties still 
grown by them, and they can remember aiul describe the following 
fifteen: 1. Black-spotted; 2. ■\Vhite-spotte<l : 3. Yellow-spotted; 
4. Red-spotted ; o. Gray-spotted ; 6. Very red ; 7. Very black ; 8. A 
sort of dark-red; 9. AVhite; 10. A sort of dark-blue; 11. A sort of 
dark-yellow: 12. Wiite with red around the hilum; 13. "White with 
black around the liilum; 14. Blue, somewhat spotted; 15. '"Like the 
hair of an elk," somewhat yellow-gray. 

Lespedeza capitata Michx. Rabbit-foot. 

Te-hu^td^-Ki nuga (Omaha-Ponca), "male buffalo bellow plant" 
{te, buffalo; hwto", bellow; nuga, male). Ainorph/i. raufscens 
was considered te-hu''to''-h! miga, female te-hu'"to''-hi. 
PaniH-as (Pawnee); pants, rabbit; an, foot. 

The Pawnee name will be recognized as an appropriate descriptive 
name. The Omaha and Ponca used the stems as thev did those of 



' Harard, Food Plants of North American Indians, p. 00. 
2 Coulter, Botany of Western Texas, pp. 89-90. 

749:«5°— U)— 33 KTH 7 



98 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. ANN. 33 

Amorpha cane«cens for inoxa. Amorpha, they found in the sandy 
luani soil of valleys and Lespedeza on the hills of the loess plain. 

Imtiiykis ornatcs Xutt. Wild Sweet Pea. 

Ili-btkl-ifi-tauya (Omaha-Ponca), large-seeded hi^hthi bean 
(«, seed; ttiiKja. large). 

My informants could describe it and tell in what locality it is to be 
found. They i-eniembered it as they fcnnerly saw it in the Sand 
Hills when they went there on the hunt. Children sometimes gath- 
ered the pods, which they roasted and ate in sport. The plant was 
not considered of any importance, although noted and named. 

OXALIDACEAE 

loNO.XALis vioLACEA (L.) Siuall. Sheep Sorrel, Violet Wood Sorrel, 
and Xaxthoxalis stricta (L.) Small. Yellow Wood Sorrel. 
iltulc-xathe (Oniaha-Ponca), " sour herb " {Kade, herb, grass; 

xathe, sour). 
Pawnee: Various names were given. Skkladihorit, a. name ha.vmg 
reference to its taste, which they describe as " sour like salt " ; some 
called it i-a/V, salt: another name given was askiratrii/u; as, foot; kira, 
water; irii/u, stands. Another name given is kisosit. The Pawnee 
say that the buffalo was very fond of Xanthoxalls stncta. Children 
ate both species, especiallj' lorw.ralis violarea, leaves, flowers, scapes, 
and bulbs. The bulbs were pounded and fed to horses to make them 
fleet. 

Lixaceae 

LiNUM LEwisii Pursh. Wild Flax. 

The seeds of the wild blue flax were gathered and used in cookery 
both because of their highly nutritive value and for the agreeable 
flavor which they added to that with which they were cooked. 

KlTACEAE 

Zanthoxyi.im AMEUicANUM Mill. Prickly Ash. 

llnknxitx (Pawnee), thorn. 

Omaha young men used the fruits of this sluub as a perfume. By 
the Pawnee the fruits were used as a remedy for horses in case of 
retention of urine. 

Mf.liaceae 

Mki.ia azeoeracii L. China Berry. 

Miik(fzh!<lc s(th, ( Omaha-Ponca ) , " black ' rod-medicine.' " 
Introduced into the Southern States early in the nineteenth cen- 
tury, it has become naturalized, gi-owing freely along the streams of 



TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 



99 



Oklahoma. It has Large, smooth black seeds inclosed in the waxy, 
yellow translucent fruits, which are borne in great profusion. ThJ 
seeds have been utilized for beads by the tribes ac(iuainted with them. 
The Omaha traveling into Oklahoma have found them there, and 
have taken up their use. They already had employed for beads as 
well as for a good-luck charm the brigiit red seed of a species of 
Erytkrina. They say it grows somewhere to the southwest, toward 
or in Mexico. They call it "red medicine," vmka'^ zhlde (nwka", 
medicine; zkide, red). AVhen the seeds of Mella were adopted for 
use as beads they likened them to maka" zhide, and so call them 
maka"-zhide nabe, " black red-medicine." 

EurHORBIACKAE 

Croton texexsis (Klotzsch) Muell. Arg. 

One Pawnee informant said that very young babies, when sick, 
were bathed with a decoction of leaves of this plant. 

Chamaesvce sKKPTLLiFOLiA (Pers.) Small. 

Naze-ni pezhl (Omaha-Ponca), "milkweed" {na^c-ni, milk; 
pezhi, weed or herb). 

According to a Ponca informant this phuit was boiled and the 
decoction drunk by young mothers whose flow of milk was scanty 
or lacking, in order to remedy that condition. This use of the plant 
is probably prescribed according to tiie doctrine of signattires. An 
Omaha informant said it was used as a remedy in case of dysentery 
and abdominal bloating in children. For this purpose tiie leaves of 
the plant were dried and pidverized and applied after first cross- 
hatching the abdomen with a knife and then further abrading the 
skin with the head of a certain plant, the identity of which I do not 
know at present as I have not had a sample. Then the pulverized 
leaves were rubbed by hand on the abraded surface. It was said to 
cause a painful, smarting sensation and to act powerfully u[)on the 
bowels through the intervening tissues and to give relief. 

An Oghila informant said little boys used the plant in play as a 
headdress. 

DiciiiiOPHYLLUJi JiAROiXATUM (Pursli) Kl. & ( iarckc. Sno\v-on-the- 
mountain. 
Karipika or kalipika tsitniks (Pawnee); tsififiks, '• j)oison." 
Karip'tka or kalipika is the Pawnee name of AneJepidH ,ii/riaca, to 
which they compare this plant, because of its milky juice, but 
they recognize the poisonous quality of all the genus. 
Anacardiaceae 

Khus glabra L. Smooth Sumac. (PI. 19, a.) 
Cha"-zi (Dakota), "yellow- wood " (2/, yellow). 
Mi"hdi-hi (Omaha-Ponca). 



100 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS (nTn.ANN.33 

llazui-hu, (Winnebago), " watei-fniit bush" (/w2, ft'uit; ni, 
wiitiT: hu. plant, tree. bush). 

Suppikt (Pawnee), "sour top." 

In the fall when the leaves turned red they were gathered and 
drie.1 for snK.king bv all the tribes. Omaha and Winnebago both 
sai.l the roots were used to make a yellow dye. Among the Pawnee 
the fruit.s were boiled to make a remedy for dysmenorriiea and also 
for bloody flu.x. An Omaha medicine-man, AVhite Horse, said the 
fruits were boiled to make a styptic wash to stop hemorrhage in 
women after parturition, and that a decoction of the root was used 
to drink in case of retention of urine and when urination was pain- 
ful. An Omaha .^aid that a poultice made by bruising the leaves was 
apl)lied wet in case of poLsoning of the skin, as by some irritant 
vegetal oil. In case the leaves could not be had the fruits were soaked 
anil bniiseil. the application being kept moist with the water in which 
the fruits had been soaked. 

ToxicoDENDiiox TuxKODENuiiON (L.) Brittou. Poison Oak. Poison 
Ivy. 

I'lthi-a'a-tTie-hi (Omaha-Ponca), '"plant that makes sore" {Kthi, 
sore; wathe, to make: hi, plant, bush, tree, any plant body). 

The people knew and dreaded the poisonous effects of this plant, 
but I did not learn of any use for it, nor of any antidote for its 
poison. 

ACERACEAE 

AcEi! sACCHAiiUM Marsh. Hard Maple. 

C/ia''-ha m" (Dakota), "pale-bark" (rhn"-Iia. bark; sa", pale or 

whitish). 
.Vrt"-.sa"^ (Winnebago), " pure or genuine wood " («//", wood; «a"/i', 

real, genuine). 
This species was used in Minnesota by the Santee Dakota. Since 
their removal to Nebraska in 180G they have made use of the next 
species. 

Acer saccharinum L. Soft Maple. 

Tnhado (Dakota). 

W't >m-sfuibcffu-ki (Omaha-Ponca), " tree to dye black." 

^Vissep^h^l (AVinnebago), "tree to dye black." 

All the tribes made sugar from the soft maple. The Dakota word 
for sugar is rhwha^pi, literally "wood" or "tree juice" {ha" pi, 
juice). The Omaha word is zho"ni {zho", wood or tree; ni, water). 
The Pawnee word for sugar, nakits, is also compounded of their 
wortis for "tree" {naMs) and "water" {kiitsu). From these exam- 
ples it appears that the etymologj' of the word for "sugar" in the 



3UREAU OF At/ERICAti ETHIJOLOGt- 



N'.'JAL REPORT PLATE 19 




a. CLUSTERS OF FRUITS OF RHUS GLABRA 

Photo by courtesy of Department of Botany, Iowa State Agricultural 
College 




I, CORDAGE MADE FROM INNER BARK OF TILIA AMERICANA (BASSWOOD): A 
BUNDLE OF RAV/ FIBER AND A PIECE OF CORD MADE BY HArjD FROM THE FIBER 



OILMOEE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS IQl 

languages of the several tribes is evidence of the aboriginal source 
of the article, for if they had first gotten sugar from the traders' 
stores It would not have been associated in their minds with the sap 
of trees. 

Prince Maximilian of Wied, in his journey up the Missouri River 
in the spring of 18:i2, observed the process of sugar making. In 
his journal of the latter part of April of that year he says, '^Auch 
die freien Indianer ijenutzten jenen Ahorn'zur BereUung de> 
Ziickers. ■' ' 

The Omaha and Winnebago names of this tree are gi\en from tlie 
use of maple twigs to make a bhick dye. The twigs and bark of 
new growth were boiled. A certain clay containing an iron com- 
pound, found interstratified witii the Pierre shales e.vposed along 
tlie Niobrara River, was mixed with grease and roasted. This 
roasted clay and the water in which the bark was boiled were then 
mixed, and the tanned hides which were to be dyed were soaked for 
two or three day.-, to get the light color. Treatment for a short time 
made them brown, and for a longer time black. 

Acer negcxix) L. Boxelder. 

Tmfikuda" (Dakota). In the Teton ilialect it is called by either 
the name tfMkkado," or rh'i"-shaishka. 

Z lull J a- 1 a- z loo" (Omaha-Ponca). beaver-wood (zltuba. beaver: 
zlw", wood; ta, genitive sign). 

Nahoah (Winnebago). 

Osako (Pawnee). 

This tree was iis<'d also for sugar making by all the tribes. The 
Dakota and Omaha and probably the other tribes used boxelder wood 
to make charcoal for ceremonial painting of the person and for 
tattooing. 

Prexious information as to the making of sugar from the sap of 
this tree pertained, among the Pawnee and Omaha, only to times 
now many years in the past: but it has been found that among some 
tribes sugar is still made from this source. In .Septeml>er, 1!>16, the 
writer found a grove of trees on the Standing Rock Reservation in 
North Dakota, of which every tree of any considerable size showed 
scars of tapping which had been done the previous spring in sugar 
making. 

Balsaminact-ae 

Impatie.ns pallida Nutt. and I. bifloka Walt. Wild Touch-me-not. 
The stems and leaves of this plant were crushed together to a pulp 
and applied to the skin as a remedy for rash and eczema by the 
Omaha. 

' Maximilian, Rplse Id das Innere .Nord-America, vol. 1, p. 279. " All the fre« 
Indians employ that maple for sugar-making." 



202 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. ann.33 

Rhamnaceap; 

CEANOTHrs AMERicANUS L. Red Root. Indian Tea. 

Tal't-hi (Omiiha-Ponca). 

The leiive-s were used Ijy all the tribes to make a drink like tea. 
Tlu' taste is something like that of the Asiatic tea and is much better 
tlian that of tlie South American verba mate. On the butialo hunt, 
when timber was scarce, the great gnarled woody roots of this shrub, 
often much larger than the part above ground, were used for fuel. 

\'irA(KAE. 

Vms ciNKiiEA Engelm. and V. vt-LPiNA L. Wild Grape. 

[la«ta''ha"ka (Dakota); Teton dialect Cha" toiyap<\ The Teton 
name simi)ly means vine {ch/i", tree; tdyape, twine, tree-twiner). 

Ilazl (Omaha-Ponca). Grape vine, hazi-hi. 

Ilapfiintsh ( Winnebago) . 

Kisiits (Pawnee). 

The fruit was used for food, either fi-esh or dried for winter use. 

A Pawnee said he had seen people tap large grapevines in spring 

and ctillect the sap to drink fresh. He said it tasted like grape juice. 

PAitTiiEXOCi.s.sus QuiNgi KtoLiA ( T^. ) Pliuicli. Virginia Creeper, 

False Grape. 

/"(jtha hazi Ita'i (Omaha-Ponca). ghost grapes (hazi. grapes). 

C'EI.ASTliACEAE 

EuoNTMr.s ATROPrBPrREA Jaccj. Burning Brush. 

Wana"fki-/-7)w''thl'' (Omaha-Ponca), ''ghost walking-stick." 

A Winnebago medicine-man said women drink a decoction of the 

iiiniT bark for uterine trouble. 

L'elastrus scaxdexs L. Bitter-sweet. 

ZuzicJut.-ta-wotc (Dakota), "snake-food " (2i/2('r7i^/, snake; irofe. 

food: ta. genitive sign). 
An Oglala called it snake-food and held the notion that it is 
poisonous. 

Tii.iaceae 

TiLIA amehkana L. (PI. 19, h.) 

Hi'ta-cha" (Dakota). 

Uinde-hi (Omaha-Ponca). 

Hi'sM-c (Winnebago). 

The inner bark fiber was used by tlie Omaha and Ponca for making 
cordage and ropes. The T^awnee say it was employed also for spin- 
ning cordage and weaving matting. 



""-"""^^ TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 103 

Malvackak 

Callirrhoe iNVOLrcRATA ( T. & G.) A. Gniv. Purple Mallow 

Short Bull, a half Brule, half Oglala, called this plant PeBhuta 
Tuz^fiazilki., "smoke treatment medicine" {pezhuta, medicine: nWiia- 
zilia having reference to its use to produce smoke for medical use). 
Fast Horse, an Oglala, called it pezhuta, " medicine." 

Among the Teton Dakota this plant was used for the smoke treat- 
ment, The dried root having been comminuted and fired, the smoke 
was inhaled for cold in the head, and aching parts were bathed in it. 
The root was boiled, the decoction being drunk for internal pains. 
Malvastrum coccinetjm (Pursh) A. Gray. Red False Mallow. 

Ueyoha f.a pezhuta (Dakota ). " medicine of the hri/oku " {pezhuta, 
medicine; heyoka, a dramatic order among tlie Dakota; la, the 
genitive sign). 

This plant possesses to a large degree tiie mucilaginous propertv 
which is in some degree conmion to all species of this family. On ac- 
count of this property the Dakota heyoha utilized it by chewing it to 
a paste, which was rubbed over hands and arms, thus making them 
immune to the effect of scalding water, so that to the mystification 
and wonderment of beholders these men were able to take up pieces 
of hot meat out of the kettle over the fire. 

The plant was ahso chewed and applied to inflamed sores and 
wounds as a cooling and healing salve. 

ViOLACEAE 

Viola sp. 

Among the Omaha children violets were used in playing a game. 
In springtime a group of children would gather a (piantity of violets: 
then, dividing into two equal parties, one party took the name of 
their own nation and the other party took another, as for in.stance 
Dakota. The two parties sat down facing each other, and each 
phiyer snapped violets with his opponent till one or the other had 
none remaining. The party having the greater number of violets 
remaining, each party having had an equal numl)er at the beginning, 
was the victor and playfidly taunted the other as being poor fighters. 

LoASACEAE 

Nttttallia nvda (Pursh) (Jreene. 

Toha hupepe (Dakota). 

The stems, after being strijjped of their leaves, were pounded to 
extract the gummy yellow juice. Yhis was applied externally as a 
remedv for fever after it had been boiled and strained. 



104 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. ann. 33 

Cactaceae 

Opuntia humikcsa R:if. rikkly Pear. (PI. -20, a.) 

/"rhrhi (Dakota). The fruits arc called u-chefa taspW. 
I'ulafiittun ( Pawnee ) . 

An aimisinjjr summer pame played by small boys of the Dakota 
Nation was the " cactus game." Boys gathered on the prairie where 
the cactus abounded. One boy who was a swift runner was chosen 
'■ to be it," as white children say in games. This boy would take 
a cactus plant and im|)ale it on a stick. The stick served as a handle 
iiv whicii he held u]) the plant for the other boys to shoot with their 
bliws and arrows. When a boy hit the target the target holder ran 
after him and would strike him with the spiny cactus; then he would 
leturn to the goal and receive the shots of other boys. Thus the 
game continued indefinitely at the pleasure of the players. 

The fruits were eaten fresh and raw after the bristles had been 
removed, or they were stewed. They were also dried for winter use. 
Sometimes from scarcity of food the Indians had to resort to the 
stems, which they roasted after first removing the spines. The 
mucilaginous juice of the stems was utilized as a sizing to fix the 
colors painted on hides or on receptacles made from hides. It was 
applied by rubbing a freshly peeled stem over the painted object. 
()u account of this mucilaginous proi)erty the peeled stems were 
bound on wounds as a dressing. 

LoriioPHORA wiLLiAMsii (Leui.) Coulter. Peyote. 

Malxd" (Omaha-Ponca). The medicine. 

The religious cult associated with this plant has been introduced 
among the Nebra.ska tribes from others to the southward. The plant 
is indigenous to the Rio (irande region, where its cult arose. Thence 
it spread from tribe to tribe, even to our northern national boundary. 
This plant is often po[)ularly but erroneously called mescal. The 
use of peyote and the religious observances connected with it were 
introduced among the Omaha in the winter of 1906-07 by one of 
the tribe who returned from a visit to the Oto in Oklahoma. He 
had lieen much addicted to the use of alcohol and had heard among 
the Oto that this religion would cure him. The cult had already 
been introduced into the Winnebago tribe, whose reservation adjoins 
that of the Omaha, so when he reached home he sought the advice 
and help of the leader of the Peyote Society in that tribe. A society 
was soon formed in the Omaha tribe, and although at first much 
opi)osed it grew till it absorbed half the tribe. At the present time 
its influence has somewhat weakeiied. 

The peyote plant and its cult ajipeal strongly to the Indian's sense 
of the mysterious and occult. The religiotis exercises connected with 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT FLATT 2- 




CACTUS NATIVE TO NEBRASKA 




GATHERING BUFFALO BERRIES iLEPARGYRAEA ARGENTEA) 



a.LMORcl TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS JQS 

it are attended by nnuh rirnnu.stance of ceren.ony and symbolism. 
The average Indian, ^vlth his psychic inheritance and his physical 
and psycmc environment, naturally attributes to the pevote most 
wonderful mystic powers. As the Semitic mind could conceive, and 
the Aryan mind could accept the Semitic conception, that deity mav 
be incarnated in an animal body-that is, a human bo<lv-so to the 
American Indum mind it seems just as reasonable to conceive that 
deity may dwell in a plant body. So he pays the plant divine honors, 
making prayers to it or in connection with it, and eating it or drink- 
ing a decocti(m of it in order to appropriate the divi'iie spirit— to 
induce the good, and exorcise the evil. In brief, the use of peyote by 
the Indian corresponds to the Christian use of lircad and wine in tlu- 
eucharist. 

The body of doctrine and belief connected with tliis cult is a 
curious blending of aboriginal American religious ideas with many 
imbibed by the Indians from diristian missionaries. In the meet- 
ing places the worshipers gather in a circle about a fireplace 
in the center of the lodge or tent. A fire is kept up throughout the 
meeting. At the west side of the fire sits the leader. In front of him 
is spread a cloth like an altar cloth; on this lies a peyote top, 
and at the edge nearest to the leader an open Bible. At liis right 
hand stands a staff symbolically decorated with feather ornamen- 
tation. In his hand he carries a fun made of 12 eagle feathers 
symbolizing the 12 Christian apostles. A water drum is beaten 
with a low insistent thrumming sound, accompanied by a gourd 
rattle, while songs are chanted, and the people gaze into the fire or 
sit with l)0wed head. Owing to the hypnotic effect of the firelight, 
the community of thought, abstraction from all extraneous atfaii's, 
the droning chant, the thrumming of the drum, and the mental 
attitude of expectancy induced by the words of the speakers, who 
discourse on the visions which shall be seen, combined with the 
physiological effect of the drug, which stimulates the optic center, 
the people fancy they really see most wonderful visions of spirits. 
As an example, the vision descrilied by a certain Omaha may be 
related. It will be observed that his vision was the result of the 
juxtaposition of a number of experiences and mental processes re- 
called and immediately induced by the circumstances of the meeting 
and the physiologic action of the drug. Tie was an ordinary reser- 
vation Indian, who had had some schooling and had been in Wash- 
ington and other eastern cities. On this occasion the opening read- 
ing from the Bible had been the story of the Hebrew prophet taken 
up to heaven in a chariot of fire. The Indian fell into a trancelike 
state and afterwards described his vision. He related that Jesus had 
come for him in an automoI)ile and had taken him up to heaven, 
where he had seen God in His glory in a splendid city, and with God 



106 USES OF PLANTS BV INDIANS 1f.tb. ann. 33 

he had see.. ...any of the great me., of all ti.i.e, more tl.u.. he could 
remember. 

El-AKAONACEAF. 

LEPAnr.VREA A..CENTEA (Nutt.) Gieoiio. l',uflai<.-l.c-.-.y. (PI. 20 h.) 
Mmkfi"rha-i>ute (Dako(;a), " rabbit -.lose " {mishtVcfui, rabbit; 

l>utc, i.ose). 
ZhC-Jwje-wazkide (OMiaha-Po.ica). or wazhlde huta, gray was- 

Jiide, . z IX 

Uaz-shutz (Winnebago). " rcd-r.-uil " {his, ivmt; .^huts, red). 

Laritsifs (Pawnee). 

The fruits are used fresh in season and are dried for winter use. 
The fruit was cere..K)iiially used in feasts given in honor of a gi.-l 
arriving at puberty. Padus nana was o.-dinarily used, but Lepar- 
(lyrca .night be substituted. This was a custo.n among the Dakota.^ 

.\l!A..lA( I'.AE 

Panax QriNQo;FOLiUM L. Ciinseng. 

.V Pawnee gave the informatio.i that ginseng roots in ccnposition 
with eertai.i other siibstances we.-e used as a love charm. From 
various i.idividuals the infor.nation was gathered bit by bit severally 
and adduced, showing that the four sjjccies of plants used in com- 
poimding this love chann were Aquilegia canadensis, Lobelia cardl- 
■nalix, CoffsweUia daucifolia, and Panax quinque folium, or possibly a 
species of Lif/ustlcmn. Speci.nens of the latter were not in hand, but 
info.-maiits spoke of it as Anr/el/ea. They had become acquainted 
with Anffell-ca of the pharmacists and probably mistook it for their 
own nati\c Ligusticum. It is possible that various combinations 
of four plants might have been used, but it appears certain that 
Aqiiilef/ia canademis and Cogswellia dauci folia were considered 
most potent. The parts used were seeds of At/uilegia and Cogx- 
ii-iJlia, dried roots of Panax, and dried roots and flowers of Lobelia 
cardinalis. With these vegetal products was mingled red-earth 
jiaint. The possession of these medicines was supposed to invest 
tlie possessor with a propeity of attractiveness to all persons, in 
spite of any .latu.-al antipathy which might otherwise exist. When 
to these were added hairs obtai.ied by stealth through the friendly 
oflices of an amiably disposed third pcson from the head of the 
woman who was desired, she was u.ial)le to resist the attraction 
and soon yielded to the one who possessed the charm. 

• Dorsey, Slouan Cults, p. 483. 



<'"'"°''^] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 107 

xVpiackak 

Washinotonia longistylis (Ton-.) Hritton. Swoot Cicely. 

Cha^-pezhuta (Dakota); <h<V\ wooil; pezhuta. medicine. 

Sha'^ga-maka" (Omaha-Ponca), horse-medicine. 

Kahtsfaraha (Pawnee), "buffalo nu-dicino " {lahfm, medicine; 
faraha, buffalo). 

The Omaha and Ponca say that horses were so fond of the roots 
of Wdshingtonhi. that if one whistled to them, while holding out the 
bag of roots, the horses came trotting up to get a taste, and so could 
easily be caught. An Omaha said that the roots were jjounded up 
to make poultices to apply to boils. A Winnebago medicine-man 
reported the same treatment for wounds. A Pawnee said that a 
decoction of the roots was taken for weakness and general debility. 

Heracletjm lanatum Michx. Cow Parsnip, Beaver Root. (PI. 21.) 
Zhdhd-maka" (Omaha-Ponca), "beaver medicine" (zfuihii, beaver: 

nuil'a", medicine). 
A Winnebago medicine-m;in said the tops of this i)lant were used 
in the smoke treatjnent for fainting and convulsions. According to 
a Pawnee, the root, scraped or pounded fine and boiled, was applied 
as a poultice for boils. It was learned from an old Omaha woman 
that the root was boiled and the decoction taken for intestinal pains 
and as a physic. An old Omaha medicine-man said the dried roots 
were pounded fine and mixed with beaver dung, and that the mi.xture 
was placed in the hole in which the sacred pole was planted. 

Cogswellia DAunFOLiA (Nutt.) M. E. Jones. Love Seed. 

PezJu' htJmsla (Omaha-Ponca), " fiat herb " {pezhe, herb; bUumka, 
flat). 

Seeds of this aromatic plant with seeds and various parts of 
other- plants were used as a love charm by men of all trii)es in the 
I'lains region. A Pawnee stated that to carry seeds of Cog-swdlia 
rendered the possessor attractive to all persons, so he would have 
many friends, all people would serve him well, and if used in con- 
nection with certain other plants would make him winning to women, 
so he might win any woman he might desire. 

CORNACEAE 

CoRNUS AMOMUM Mill. Red Dogwood, Kinnikinnick. (PI. 22.) 
CM^-shasha (Dakota), "red wood" {cha", wood; shn-sha, a re- 
duplication of sha., red). So called from the winter coloration 
of its bark. 



log USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. ann. 33 

Sinkjahi (Oiimha-Ponca). Contracted from ninl, pipe, and iyahi, 
to mix; to mix | witli tobacco] for the pipe. 

Rxihi-shutsh (Winnebago). 

Rapahat (Pawnee), "red-stick" {ra, stick; paJmt, red). 

The outer bark was removed, after which the inner bark was 
scraped and dried for smoking. It is fragrant, and all the tribes 
were very fond of it. 
CoRNDS STOLONiFERA lilichx. Eed Briish, Kinnikinnick. 

C'ha'-shasha-hi-'chake (Dakota), real cluf-s/iasha {hi"chaJ,-e, real, 
very, indeed). 

Ninifjahi lite (Omaha-Ponca), real ninigahi. 

This species is preferred for smoking. Tt is said to be the best of 
all. but the Indians describe and name another which was also u.sed, 
but which I did not succeed in seeing or identifying. The Omaha 
and Ponca call it n'migahi gthcshe, " spotted 7umgaki." 
CoRNtJS ASPERiFOLiA Mlchx. Rough Dogwood. 

MaSa-Kte-hi (Omaha-Ponca), "real arrow tree" (fJiWsa, an-ow; 
hte, real; hi, plant body). 

Jda'd-hotsh (Winnebago). 

Nakipistatu (Pawnee), " real arrow tree " {nahuapi, tree; Mpis, ar- 
row; tatu, real). 

This was the favorite wood for arrow shafts. 

Ericaceae 

UvA-uRsi uvA-UESi (L.) Brittoii. Bearberry. 
Nalcmis (Pawnee), "little tree," "short tree" (nakas, tree; kasis, 

short). 
The leaves were used for smoking like tobacco. 

Oleaceae 

Fraxintts pennsy'lvanica Marsh. Ash. 

Pschti" (Dakota). 

Tajihndnga-ki (Omaha-Ponca ) . 

Rak (Winnebago). 

Kidltako (Pawnee). 

Ash wood was universally u.sed for making pipestems; it was 
used also for making bows, and young .stems furnished arrow shafts. 
The ash is one of the trees to which mystic powers are ascribed. 
J. Owen Dorsey says: "The Omaha have two sacred trees, the ash 
and the cedar. The ash is connected with the beneficent natural 



-BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL 



REPORT PLATE 21 




HERACLEUM LANATUM 
Photo by cojrtesy of Geor(;e R. Fi-x, Apple-ton, Wi; 



■JNUAL REPORT PLATE 22 



V- 







CORNUS AMOMUM IN BLOOM 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 24 





ASCLEPIAS SYRIACA. FRUITS 
uriesy of Public Museum of Milwaukee, Dep, 



oiLMOEE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 109 

powers. Part of the sacred pole of the Omaha and Ponea is made 
of ash, the other part being of cottonwood." ' 

The stems of the two principal symbolic objects used in the 
Wawa" ceremony of the Omalia and the corresponding ceremony of 
the Hako of the Pawnee were made of ash wood. 

fiEXTLVXAfKAK 

Dasystephana PUBERtJLA (Michx.) Small. Gentian. 

Maka" chahivji-cho (AVinnebago), "blue-blossom medicine" 

{vud-a", medicine: clmhiirl. blossom: cho, blue). 
Pezhuta-zi (Dakota), "yellow medicine" {pezhuta, medicine: s/, 

yellow). So called because of the color of the roots. 
A decoction of the root is taken as a tonic: it is so used alone and 
also in combination with other medicinal plants. 

.Vs(l?:imai)aci:ai; 
AscLEPTAS TUBEKosA L. Butterfly Weed. Pleurisy Root. 

Maka" mika (Omaha-Pouca), "raw medicine"; (saka. raw: 
rruika" saka thata i, medicine they eat raw), .\nother name 
given is kiu m-aka", wound medicine. The name raw medicine 
was given because this root was used without boiling. 

The root was eaten i-aw for bronchial and pulmonary trouble. It 
was also chewed and put into wounds, or pulverized when dry and 
blown into wounds. It was applied as a remedy for old. obstinate 
sores. In the Omaha tribe this medicine and its rites belonged to 
the Shell Society. A certain member of the society was the autiior- 
ized guardian or keeper of this medicine. It was his prerogative to 
dig the root and distribute bundles of it to the members of the society. 
The ceremonials cfninected with the digging, preparation, consecra- 
tion, and distribution occupied four day.s. In this connection it 
may not be out of place to note that four is the dominant number in 
all ritual and in all orientation in space and time among the Plains 
tribes, just as the number .seven is dominant with some other peoples. 
Whether four or seven be the dominant numbei- depends on whether 
the four cardinal points of the horizon are given preeminence or 
whether equal place is given also to the three remaining ])oints. the 
Zenith, the Xadir, and the Here. 
AsciiEPiAS .STRTACA L. Milkwecd. (Pis. 23, 24.) 

Wafitha (Omaha-Ponca). 

Mahintsh (Winnebago). 

Karipiku ( Pawnee ) . 

This plant is used for food at three stages of its growth— the 
young sprouts in early spring, like asparagus sprouts; the clusters 

■Slouan Cults, p. 390. 



110 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [ETzi. anx. 33 

(if tlunil l.ii.ls; and tlie yoiiiig fruits while firm and j^rcen. It is 
pri-piirt'd by boiling. Small boys used the fiber of the mature stalks 
of this plant for popgun wad.s. chewing it for the purpose. 

When tlie Omaha first saw cabbage and noted its use boiled, as 
they boiled irafUh^t. they likened it to that, and so named cabbage 
iraKtha waHe, " white man's iraHtha.'' Likewise the Pawnee named 
cabbage kari/tiku tsahihs-taka, "white man's karipiku'' {tsahiku, 
person: taka, white). 
Asri.KPiAs EXALTATA (L.) Muhl. Tall Milkweed. 

WaKthu-tika (Omaha-l'onca), white waTitha {ska, white; ivaJitha, 
as stated before, is the Omaha-Ponca name of Asclep/as 
xi/riaca). 

Tiie r(M)t was eaten raw as a remedy for stoiiuuh trouble. 

Co.NVOI.VULACKAE 

Ipomoka LKi'ioPH-i-LLA Tofr. Bush Morning-glory. (Pis. 25, 26.) 
KahtH-tuwirikt (Pawnee), "whirlwind medicine'' {tuwirihi, 
whirlwind). So called because of the peculiar twisted nature of 
the fibrovascular system. 
Among the Pawnee the large, perennial storage root of this xero- 
jih^-tic plant is highly prized as a remedy for nervousness and bad 
<lreams. For this purjOTse the smoke treatment was used. For alle- 
viation of pain the pulverized root was dusted on the body with 
a deer tail or with a feather brush. It was also used to revive one 
who had fainted. 

Cr.scirrA paradoxa Raf. Dodder, Love Vine. 

Ilukastahkata (Pawnee), "yellow vine" {Iwkastah, vine; kata, 
yellow). 

The dodder vine was used by Pawnee maidens to divine whether 
their suitors were sincere. A girl having plucked a vine, with the 
thought of the young man in mind tossed the vine over her shoulder 
into the weeds of host species of this dodder. Then, turning round, 
-she marked the plant on which the vine fell. The second day after 
she would return to see whether the dodder had attached itself and 
was growing on its host. If so, she went away content with full 
assurance of her lover's sincerity and faithfulness. If the dodder 
had not twined and attached itself, she took it as a warning not to 
trust him. 

Dodder was said to be used as a dyestuff to give an orange color 
to feathers. For this purpose the vines were boiled and the ma- 
terials to be dyed were dipped. A Mexican Indian now living at 



Bureau of American ethnol 



Thirty-Third annual report plate 25 




IPOMOEA LEPTOPHYLLA ;BUSH MORNING-GLORY;. AN ENTIRE 
SHOWING THE large ROOT, ABOUT 4 FEET LONG 
Photo ny courtesy of Dr. R. J. Po^l. Unversity of NeDraska 



'THNOLOGY THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 26 




a. IPOMOEA LEPTOPHYLLA (6USH MORNING-GLORY). A PERENNIAL FLOWERING 
PLANT NATIVE IN THE SAND HILLS OF NEBRASKA, SHOWING HABIT 







Hi;*.- "^^ 






fc||^ 






SpJ 






^H 



(,, IPOMOEA LEPTOPHYLLA iBUSH MORNING-GLORY) 
Photos by courtesy ol Dr. R. J. Pool, University of Nebraska 



''"'''°''^' TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS JH 

Pine Ridge said his people call it rattlesnake food and say that 
rattlesnakes take it into their dens lor food. 

BoKAGINAtEAE 
LiTHOSPERMUM CANESCENS (MicllX.) Lc-lim. 

Basu-hl (Omaha-Ponca). 

Children used the root of this plant in sport to chew with their 
gum (gum of >SiIphiu7n Imimatum) to make it of a red color. The 
flowers of this plant were likewise used to color gum yellow. 

A'kIM!ENACEAE 

Verbena hastata L. Wild \'crbeiia. 

ChwhaJoga pezhuta (Dakota) ; peskiifa, medicine, 

Pezhe mal-a" (Omaha-Ponca) ; pezhe, herb: m^ha", medicine. 

Among the Teton Dakota the leaves were boiled to make a drink 

as a remedy for stomach ache. Among the Omaha the leaves were 

steeped merely to make a beverage like tea. 

MEXTHAfEAE 

MoNARDA FiSTULosA L. Wild Bergamot, Horsemint. 

IleKaka ta pezhuta (Dakota), "elk medicine" {Kehaka, elk; pez- 
hufa, medicine; fa, genitive sign) ; or Heliaka ta tcofe, food of the 
elk (wofe, food). 

Pezhe pa (Omaha-Ponca), '■ bitter herb " {pa, bitter; pcz/ic, herb). 

Tsvsahtu (Pawnee), ill smelling. 

By the Teton Dakota the flowers and leaves are boiled together to 
make a medicine which is drunk to cure abdominal pains. 

The Winnebago used for pimples and other dermal ('ru])tions on 
the face an application made by boiling the leaves. 

MoNARDA FISTTLOSA vAR. Washtemna. 

Wa/ipe irashfemna (Dakota), "fragrant leaves" {wah'pe, leaf; 
irashfe, good; 7)i7ui, odorous). This form is one of the plants 
connected with the Sun dance, according to J. Owen Dorsey.' 

Izna-]cit}u-iga hi (Omaha-Ponca), referring to its use in com- 
pounding a pomade for tlie hair. Sometimes called pezhe-pa 
mi'"ga in distinction from the other pezhe-pa, in reference to i(s 
finer essence and more delicat* plant body {mv'fja. female; fe- 
male pezhe-pa) . 

Tsostu (Pawnee), meaning, if any, not found. 

> Slouan Cults, p. 454. 



112 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. ann. 33 

In addition to these two forms, the Pawnee, as said before, recog- 
nize and name two otiier forms. All these four forms are included in 
our ta.Nonomy under the name Monarda fistulosa. The two remain- 
ing; forms, affording to the Pawnee classification and nomenclature, 
are /W.iw taw I rut and pamkaha. The latter name, paraknha, sig- 
nifies "fragrant": tmkus fawirat, "shot many times still fighting" 
(tsakuti, shot many times; tawirat, still fighting). In the order of 
decreasing desirability for fragrance the Pawnee classify the four 
forms in this onler: paraJcafui, fsaku.s tawtraf, tsostu, and t.susahfu, 
whifii last name, meaning ill smelling, shows that it is undesirable, 
according to their suspectibilities, for this purjwse. One or more of 
the other forms may often l)e found wherever the last, tsiisahtii, the 
fonmion type form of Monarda fsiulosa, is found. The Pawnee 
chara<'terize them thus: tsumhtu, with stiff strong stems; tsostu, with 
weaker stems and smaller leaves; the next two with weak stems, the 
most fragrant one, parakafia, with stems " as weak as straw." But 
they also find differences in the roots, and they say these must be com- 
pared in order to make identification certain. 

The differences noted by the Indians among these varieties, if we 
may be allowed to call them varieties, are fixed and hereditary and 
not accidental or dependent on season or situation. Of this I am 
assured by my own experience with living specimens of the two 
forms designated by the Dakota KcHaka fa pezhuta and waRpe 
u'a><hteinna. I have transplanted specimens of these two forms from 
the wild state and have had them under oliservation at all seasons for 
five years. I have also noted these two forms in the wild state stand- 
ing in close proximity to each other. 

I give this extended discussion because I have found taxonomists 
reluctant to admit the possibility of this distinction: at the same 
time they did not put it to the proof. 
TTf.oeoma iiispida Pursh. Eough Pennyroyal. 

Maka rhhika (Dakota). 

An infusion of the leaves was used as a remedy for colds. It was 
used also as a flavor and tonic appetizer in diet for the sick. 
Mentha caxadensis L. Wild Mint. 

Chiaka. (Dakota). 

Pezhe imhtho" (Omaha-Ponca), "fragrant herb" (nuitTu)'', fra- 
grant). 

Kahts-kiwahaaru (Pawnee) ; " swamp medicine " {kahfs, from 
kahtsu, medicine; kiwakaaru, swamp). 

Wild mint was used by all the tribes as a carminative, for this 
purjjose being steeped in wa+er for the patient to drink and sweetened 
with sugar. Sometimes this infusion was used as a beverage, like 
tea, not alone for its medicinal property but for its pleasing aromatic 
flavor. 



°'"'°*^^ TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS II3 

The Dakota used mint as a flavor in co„l<ing ,neat. Thev also 
packed It with their stox-es of dried n.eat, nudung alternate a," 
of dried meat and mint. -^ 

A Winnebago informant said tiiat traps were boiled with nunt 
in order to deodorize them so that animals mi-ht „„t he deterred 
by the scent of blood from entering them. 

Ag.astache axethiodor.4 (Xutt.) Britton. Fragrant Giant IIv.ssop 
Wild Anise. 
The leaves of this plant were commonly used to make a hot aqueous 
drink like tea to be taken with meals. It was also used as a sweet- 
ening flavor in cookery. 

SOLANACEAE 

Phvsalts heterophvlla Nees. Ground Cherry. 
Tamanlohpe (Dakota). 

Pe igatush (Omaha-Ponca) ; pe, forehead; kjatush, to pop. The 
name has reference to the use by children of tlie inflated persist- 
ent calices which they pop on the forehead in play. 
Nikakitspak (Pawnee) ; nikako, forehead; kitspak, to pop. 
The fruits of the edible species, P. heterophylla, are made into a 
sauce for food by all these tribes. When a sufficient quantity of them 
was found they were dried for winter. When the Dakota first saw 
figs they likened them to Physalis (Tajmniofvpe), and called them 
Twnmniohpe washichu", " white man's tamaniokpe." 
Physalis lanceolata Michx.' Prairie Ground Cherry. 
MaJca"^ ba<shako"-sho'' (Omaha-Ponca), "crooked medicine" 
{hashaisho''sho'', crooked, referring to the root of this species). 
Ha^pok -hischa.su (Winnebago), "owl eyes" [hcfpok^oy^-X; hischaau, 

eyes). 
The root of this plant was used in the smoke treatment. .\ decoc- 
tion of the root was used for stomach trouble and for headache. A 
dressing for wounds was also made from it. 

Nicotian A quadrivalvis Pursh. Tobacco. (PI. 27, b.) 

Cha"di (Dakota) ; Teton dialect, cha"H. 

Nini-hi ( Omaha - Ponca ) . 

This sj^ecies of Nlcotiana was cultivated by all the tribes of Ne- 
braska. Since the advent of Eurojieans tobacco is one of the crops 
whose culture has been abandoned by these tribes, and they have all 
lost the seed of it, so that the oldest living Omaha have never seen it 
growing; but they sometimes receive presents of the prepared tobacco 

iThis Is the sppoies which Is Intended by the reference on p. 584 of The Omaha 
Tribe, Twenty-seventh Rep. Bur. of Amer. Ethn. The reference here names I'hyaalia 
vUcora, no donbt an error for P. viacosa. Bot P. viscosa Is native to the Atlantic coast 
and is not found in the territory of the Omaha. 

74936°— 1!)— 3.3 kth 8 



114 USES OF PLANTS BY INDUNS [eth. ANN 33 

fr.„n other tribes to tl.e north, who are still growing it. From an old 
man, Long Bear, of tlie llidatsa tribe in North Dakota, who was then 
::{ years old. T obtained specimens and seed in 1908, by which I was 
»bi;. to determine the species. I planted the seed and have had it 
growing evei-v year since. The plant, when full grown, is only about 
m cm. or TO .•m'. in height. It is very hardy and of quick maturity, so 
that rii.e seed will be found in about CO or 6.3 days after coming up, 
and fruit bearing continues till frost comes. 

.\ccording to Xuttall, Xkotiana qiuulrivcaris was cultivated by all 
the tribes along the Missouri. • 

A Pawnee informant said that his people in the old time prepared 
the ground for planting this tobacco by gathering a quantity of dried 
grass, which was burned where the patch was to be sown. This kept 
the ground clear of weeds, so that nothing grew except the tobacco 
which was planted. The crop was allowed to grow thick, and then 
the whole plant— leaves, unripe fruit capsules, and the tender, small 
parts of the stems— was dried for smoking. The unripe seed capsules, 
dried sejiarately. were specially prized for smoking on account of the 
flavor, pronounced by the Indians to be like the flavor now found in 
the imi)orted Turkish tobacco. 

A Winnei)ago informant told me that his people prepared the to- 
bacco by picking off the leaves and laying them out to dry. Next day 
the partially dry leaves, limp and somewhat viscid, were rolled like 
tea leaves and again laid to dry. When fully dry the leaves were 
rubbed fine and stored away. In this finished state the tobacco looks 
somewhat like gunpowder tea. The Indians said it was of very 
pleasant odor for smoldng. The species of tobacco which was culti- 
vated by the Winnebago, as well as the other tribes of the eastern 
woodland region, was Nicotiana rustlca L. It appears that this 
species was cultivated by all the tribes from the Mississippi River 
eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. It is said that the woodland tribes 
eagerly accepted ]irosonts of prepared tobacco of the species Nirotiana 
(jwulrii\dris from the tribes of the plains region and sought to obtain 
seed of the same, but the plains tribes jealously guarded against 
allowing the seed to be exported to their woodland neighbors. 

SrKOPnUL.\RI.\CE.4E 

Pentstemox GiiANDiFLORus Xutt. Wild Fox-glovc. 

.\ Pawnee informant said that he uses this plant as a remedy for 
chills and fever, but it is not of common knowledge and use. The 
preparation is a decoction of the leaves, taken internally. 

' Pickering, Chronological History o( Plants, p. 741. 



BUriEAU or AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY THIRTY Tu,r,r. 

"^"'TY-THIRD ANNUAL R 




EPORT PLATE 27 



PEPO FOETIDISSIMA iWlLD GOURD) IN 8L0 



) IN BLOOM 




b. STRIKES TWO, AN AGED MAN OF THE ARIKAKA IfilBE. GAIMERING HIS 



"'^"^ORE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS U5 

Plantacinaceae 

Plantago major L. Plantain. 

Sinie nmka." ( Omaha -Ponca). 

A Ponca gave n.e the information that a bunch of leaves of this 
plant made hot and applie.l to the foot is good to draw out a thorn 
or splinter. 

RllUACEAE 

Galium triflorum Michx. Fragrant Bedstraw, Lady's Boiiqiiot. 

Wau-j>esfie (Omaha-Ponca), woman's herb, or wau-inu-moka", 
woman's perfume (irau^ woman). 

The plant was used by women on account of its fragrance, a deli- 
cate odor given off in withering, which resembles the odor of sweet- 
grass, a handful of the i)lant being tucked under the girdle. 

^'AI'lill'OLIACEAE 

Sambucus CANADENSIS L. Elderberry. 

Chaputa (Dakota) ; rh/ijnita-hii, elder bush. 

Wagathahashla. (Omaha-Poncu) ; wa(/ath^ihashhi-M, elder bush. 

SMrarht (Pawnee). 

The fruits were used for food in the fresh stat<?. The lai'ger stems 
of the bush were used by small boys for making popguns. A pleas- 
ant drink was made by dipping the blossoms into liot water. 
ViBtTRNUM LENTAGo L. Black Haw, Nannyberry. 

Mrui (Dakota) ; nuia-ku, black haw bush. 

Na"s7unna" ( Omaha-Ponca) . 

Wvvni (Winnebago). 

Akiwasa-s (Pawnee) ; naming names. 

The fruits were eaten from the hand, not gathered in quantity. 

ViBURNtHM OPULUS L. " High-busli Cranberry," Pembina.' 

In the north, where Smtil)u.cus canadensis is not found, boys made 
popguns from stalks of Vihiirnum opiilus after removing the T)ith. 

1 The name pembina is herewith proposed as a popular name for this slirul) heca\ise of 
the atrocious ineptness of the name " high-bush cranberry," since the berry of Viburnum 
is notUinj; lllie a crant)erry, and also because of the fact that the name pembina is 
already commonly applied to this shrub and its fruit by the people of northern North 
Dakota and Manitoba. Th.' word pembina is a white man's corruption of tlic niunc of 
thla berry in the Chippewa language, which Is nrpinminan, summer-berry; nrpiii. sum- 
mer: and minan berry. The pronunciation of pembina is indicated thus: pfni'-blna. 
Thla name was applied to a river and mountain In North Dakota, and suteecnientl.v to a 
town and county of that State. The Chippewa call the river Nepin-minan Sipl (Summer- 
berry River), because of the abundance of these beirles growing along the couirse of that 
stream. 



116 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth ann. as 

Tlu'V iiiii.le the piston I rum a piece uf ArruJanchicr alnifoUd or of 
tlie youiif: {.'lowth of Quercus macrocarpa. The fibrous inner bark 
of ilmux anurhima and of U. fulva wag used for poiigun wads. 
In the nortli, wliere Betuht papyrifera is found, its papery bark was 
clu'wod to a pulp and used for this purpose, while on the western 
prairie tiie tops of Arteini^iu were chewed and so used. 
Sv-Mi-iionicAHPOS svMPHORiCAHPOs (L.) MacM. Coral Berry, and S. 
OIL iDE.N TALIS Hook. AVolf Berry, Buck Brush. 
Zuzceha-ta-wote sapsapa (Dakota); black snake food {zu-zecTui, 
snake: wofe, food; ta, genitive sign; .sapsapa, reduplication of 
siipii, black ). 
I"«hto(/uK(i-hl (Onudia-Ponca), eye-lotion plant {/".shta, eye). 
The leaves were steeped to nuike an infusion used for weak or 
inflamed eyes. 

CVCUUHITACKAE 

Pki'o FoETUUssiMA (11. B. K.) Brittou. Wild (Jourd. (PI. 27, a.) 

^Yayunm" ptzhuta ( Dakota ) , pumpkin medicine ( iraguiniV\ pump- 
kin; pczkuta, medicine). 

Xiashifja iiuika" (Omaha-Ponca), human-being medicine {niashiga, 
human being; maka", medicine). They say it is male {niashiga 
maka" nuya) and female {iMish-tga nuika" miga). 

This is one of the plants considered to possess special mystic 
properties. I'eople weie afraid to dig it or handle it unauthorized. 
Tiie i)roperly constituted authorities might dig it, being careful to 
make the prescribed offering of tobacco to the spirit of the plant, 
accompanied by the proper prayers, and using extreme care not to 
wound the root in removing it from the earth. A man of my ac- 
quaintance in the Omaha tribe essayed to take up a root of this plant 
and in doing so cut the side of the root. Not long afterward one of 
his children fell, injuring its side so that death ensued, which was 
ascribed by the tribe to the wounding of the root by the father. 

This plant is one which is held in particularly high esteem by all 
the tribes as a medicinal agent. As its range is restricted to the 
drier parts of the (ireat Plains, it happens that since the tribes are 
confined to reservations they can not get it as easily as they did 
in old times. This explains why, when I have exhibited specimens 
of the root in seeking information, the Indians have asked for it. 
While they fear to dig it themselves, after I have assumed the risk 
of so doing they are willing to profit by my temerity; or it may be 
that the white man is not held to account by the Higher Powers 
of the Indian's world. 

Tiie root is used medicinally according to the doctrine of signa- 
tures, simulating, it is believed, the form of the human body, and 



# 



""'"'""^^ TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLAXTS JJ^ 

thought to be male and female. As a reme.ly for any ailment a por- 
tion of the root from the part corresponding, in pt,sition to the 
affected part of tlie patienfs body is „sed-for headache or other 
ronb e m the head s„mo „f the top of the root is used; for abdominal 
trouble a bit ot the middle of the root; and so on. 

A number of species of Cncurbitacea? were of undoubted aboriginal 
American culture, as atteste.l by the writings of the earliest explor- 
ers, missionaries, and settlers, as well as by the stories, traditions 
myths, and religious ceremonies of the various tribes. From all the 
evidence I have it appears that the tribes of Nebraska prior to Euro- 
pean contact certainly cultivated s(iuashes and prnnpidns of several 
varieties, gourds, and possibly watermelons. (PI. 2S.) 

When we seek the region in which mav possiblv be found the 
original prototypes of the cultivated species grown l)y the tribes 
of Nebraska, naturally we must look to the region of the'Hio (irande 
or beyond. 

CucuRBiTA LAGEXARiA L. Dipper Gourd. 

Wanmuha or irahniu (Dakota). 

PeKe (Omaha-Ponca). 

Among the tribes generally the gourd was grown in oider to i)ro- 
vide shells of which to make rattles. For this purpose" the gourd 
was indispensable, as rattles made therefrom were essential foi- all 
ritualistic music. In order to fashion a rattle, the contents of the 
gourd were removed and a handle was attached. Seeds of Ansaema. 
triphyllum or small gravel were placed in the shell. 

Pepo pepo (L.) Pumpkin. 

Wamnu (Dakota): Teton dialect, inn/amW. 

Wata" (Omaha-Pouca). 

Since the advent of Europeans and the consequent disturbance of 
the aboriginal activities the tribes have lost many of the varieties 
of their old-time cultivated plants. Some varieties lost iiy one tribe 
are still retained by some other tribe, while the latter probably no 
longer enjoys plants still in possession of the formei'. Of their old- 
time squashes the Omaha can describe the following eight varieties, 
although they have lost the seed of most of them. They do not dis- 
tinguish between pumpkin and squash, but call them both waia" 
with descriptive modifiers affi.xed. 1. Wata" Kti, "real squash" (Kit, 
real). This term would seem to indicate that this variety has been 
longest known by the tribe. It is described as being spherical in 
form, yellowish in color, " like a cottonwood leaf in the fall." 
2. Wata" miHa, small, spherical, spotted black and green. 3. Wata" 
nide hazu. large oval, pointed at the ends, greenish in color. 
4. Wata" kukuge, speckled. 5. Wata" miKa mede, long wata" mUia. 



II g USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [kth. an.n.33 

(•>. Wd/ti" iniKa ska, white icata" miKu. 7. llafo" Tnilla sola, 
black tpata" TJuKa. 8. Wata" mifia zi, yellow wata" miJia. These 
last four squashes, called icafa" mlKa, were small summer or fall 
s<|uaslu's. 

The Omaha i)laiited their s(iuashes at the time of blossomin-r of 
the wild plum. 

ruciirhiln iiinsimn of Tropical or Suhtroiiical America. The pumpkin called 
III Hrazillan " juruniu " (.Marcfrr. 44), in Carib " jujuru " or " babora " 
(iH-sc), aiiJ cultivated from early times: "pompions" were seen by Colum- 
bus in ]4!>3 on Ouadalopc (F. Colunib. 47) ... (". maxima wa.-< observed by 
De Soto In 1542 in Florida, and is known to bave been cultivatetl by tlie 
North American tribes as far as the St. Lawrence." 

April i;:, ir>28 (Cabeza de Vaca. and Cluircliiil Coll.), arrival of exped. of 
I'amphilo de Narvaez on north side of Gulf of Mexico, west of Mississippi U. 
Laniled. proceeded inland, and observed pumpkins and beau.s cultivated by the 
nalives.' 

.\bout their liowses they have commonly square plotts of cleered srownd, 
which serve them for gardens, some one hundred, some two hundred foote 
sipiiire, wherein they sowe their tobacco, pumpons, and a fruit like unto a musk 
million, but lesse and worse, which they call niacock gourds, and such like, 
which fruicts increase exceedingly, and ripen in the beginning of .Tuly, and 
contynue until September; they plant also the field apple, the niaracock, a 
wyld fruit like a kind of poraegranett. which increaseth Inflnitlye, and ripens 
In August, contynuing untill the end of October, when all the other fruicts be 
gathereil, but they sowe nether herb, flower, nor any other kynd of fruict.' 

Pepo ma.xima (Duch.) Peterm. Squash. 

This species is found in tropical and subtropical North America. 

The sqiiagli, called by the New England tribes " askittaxquash" (R. Will.), 
and cultivated from early times: — observed under cultivation by the natives by 
W. Wood. II. Williams, and Josselyn ; is known to have been cultivated through- 
out our middle and southern States; by the natives in the West Indies, as 
appears from Dalechamp pi. G16, and was seen by Chanvalon on Martinique 
(Poiret diet. nat. xi, 234.) ' 

To tlie southwest, whence came the crop plants of aboriginal cul- 
ture in Nebraska, the remains in ruins sometimes reveal the identity 
of plants of ancient culture there. 

The occurrence of squash seeds in some of the iiiorluary bowls is important, 
indicating the ancient use of this vegetable for food. It may, in this connec- 
lioil. be borne in mind that one of the scmthern clans of the Hopi Indians was 
called the Patuu or Squash faniib'.'' 

Pepo pepo, Dr. J. IT. Coulter says, " Has a naturalized variety 
in southern and western Texas, .... {C. tc.rana Gray)."" 

' rickcring. Chronological History of Plants, pp. 700-710. 

' Ihld., p. 800. 

■William Strachcy, Illstorle of Triivnilc Into Vli-Rlnla nrltannla, p. 72 (1612). 

• rickcrlnR, op. clt., p. 747. 

• Fcwkcs, Two Summers' Work In Pueblo Bulns, p. 101. 
•Coulter. Botany of Wostem Texas, p. 124. 



oiLMOKEl TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS Hg 

Pumpkin seeds have been found in old Pawnee graves in Xebrasl<a 
Ihe squash IS mentioned in the Onondaga creation mvth showing 
that It has been in cultivation by that tribe from ancient times and 
this IS evidence of its wide distribution from the area of its origin.' 
Religious expression is one of the most conservative elements and 
does not readily take up any new thing, hence the religious sr^ngs of 
a people indicate those things which have been for a long time 
familiar to that people. Allusion is made to the squash in some of 
the oldest religious s^jngs of the Pima tribe in the southwest. One of 
the most ancient hymns toljring rain is the following. 

Hl-llo-o ya-a-a ! He the All-seelri)? 

Sees the two .stalk.s of corn stamling; 

He's my younger brother. Hi-llo-« ya-a-a ! 

He the All-swing sees the two sfjiia-shes; 

He's my younger brother. U\-iU>-o ya-a-a : 

On the summit of Ta-atukarn sees the corn stamling; 

He's my younger brother. Hi-ik>-o ya-a-a ! 

On the summit of Ta-atukam sees the s<)uash standing; 

He's my younger brother. Hl-llo-o wolha ! 

Another Pima rain song: 

Hl-lhlya nalho-o! The blue light of evening 

Falls as we sing before the aaf-red amlna. 

About us on all sides corn ta.ssels are waving. 

Hitciya yahina ! The white light or day dawn 

Yet finds us singing, while corn tassels are waving. 

Hitciya yahlna-a ! The blue light of evening 

F.'dls as we sing beforf thf sar-red ftrnlna. 

About us on all sides corn tas.sels are waving. 

HItf-iya yahina ! The white light of day djiwn 

Yet finds us singing, while the squash leaves are waving.* 

CuctJRBiTA FiciFOLiA Bouche. {€'. melaTiospenna, A. Br.) 

The specimens corresjMind closely with the desf-ription of this species 
(hitherto known only as cultivated In European gardens and conjectured to be 
from the East Indies) excepting in the shape of the leaves, whirh have the 
lolies (often short) and sinuses aimte Instead of rountled. Guadalajara, culti- 
vated; September (620). — Ttie fruit, calletl "cidra cayote" or "chlla cayote," la 
about a foot In length, resembling a watermelon In appearance, with a hard 
outer shell, the contents white and fibrous, and seeds black. It keeps for many 
months without decay. A preserve is made of the inner fibrous portion. The 
name " cayote," given to this and other cucurbitaceous species In Mexico, may 
be the fquivalent of the " chayote " of Cervantes and the " chayotll " of 
Hernandez.' 



' rifwitt. IrtKinoInn rosmolosy, p. 174. 

»Rii»9<ll. The Pima IndlanB, p .'!S2. 

• Watson, ContrlbuUons to American Botany, p. 414. 



120 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [ETH. ANN. 33 

CiTBULLUS ciTRULLUs (L.) Karst. AViitPi-inelon. (Pis. 29, 29 A.) 

Saka ijutapl (Dakota), Santee dialect, eaten raw {saka, raw); 
Yankton and Teton dialect, 8hjm"shm yulajrl, eat«n uncooked 
{■ihj)a"fifi)ii, uncooked ) . 

A^a^-rt. fhide (Oiuaha-ronca), or saJca fhata, eaten raw (sa7,-u, raw). 

Wafh^ika ratdshe (Oto). 

^^^len I first inquired of the Omaha in regard to their ancient 
cultivated crops, they named watermelons as one of the crops grown 
from time immemorial. Thej- siiid they had a kind of watermelon 
which was small, round, and green, having a thin rind and red flesh, 
with small, black, shining seeds; that it was different fi-om the 
melons now grown fi-om seed introdiu^ed since the coming of white 
men. I read the statement made by an early explorer coming up the 
Missouri River that the Oto brought i)resents of watermelons to the 
boat. I received from the Ponca, the Pawnee, and the Cheyenne 
an account which was perfectly uniform with that I had from the 
Omaha, even to the gestural description of the melon. Lastly, I 
was told by a white man who was born in northern Texas and had 
been familiar all his life with the natural characteristics of northern 
Texas and southern Oklahoma, that he had often found and eaten 
wild watermelons on the sand bars and banks of Red River, Pecos 
River, and other streams of northwestern Texas. He said further 
that his father had told him of finding them on still other streams 
of that region. This man desciibed the wild watermelons to me 
exactly as all the tribes before mentioned had described their culti- 
vated melons. 

This hitherto unthoiight of probability of the presence on the 
American continent of an indigenous species of CitruUus caused me 
to make search tlnv)Ugh the literature and to make inquiry by corre- 
spondence, with the results I have here appended. The more I 
searched into the matter the more unlikely it seemed to me that even 
so desirable a fruit as the watermelon, should it be granted to have 
been introduced by the Spaniards at the time of their very first set- 
tlement, could have been disseminated witli such astonishing rapidity 
and thoroughness as to be found so common among so many tribes 
of eastern North .\merica from the (iulf of Mexico to the Great 
Lakes, and from the Atlantic coast to the Great Plains. Such a 
result would be all the more astonishing, considering the barriers to 
be passed in its passage from tribe to tribe; barriers of racial an- 
tagonism, of diverse languages, of climatic adaptation, and the ever- 
present barrier of conservatism, of unwillingness of any people to 
adopt a new thing. Put if none of these barriers had intervened, 
and if each tribe had zealoiisly propagated and distributed as rapidly 
as possible to its neighbors, it can scarcely be believed that time 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY TH , RTV-TH , PO ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 29 




a. STAMINATE AND PISTILLATE FLOWERS OF WATERMELON GROWN FROM 
SEED OBTAINED FROM PENISHKA. AN OLD MAN OF THE PONCA TRIBE 




;,. UNIT OF VINE OF ABOVE 
Photos by courtesy of W. E. Safford. U. S. Department of Agncultun 



oiLMOBE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 121 

enough had elapsed for this to be accomplished at the first contact 
of the French and English explorers. The watermelons grown by 
the various tribes seem to be of a variety distinct from any of the 
many known varieties of European introduction. 

I append here some quotations from literature which I have found 
in various .sources bearing on the subject. 

J. M. Coulter (Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb., vol. ii. p. 123. Botany of 
Western Texas), after describing adds: " Said i)y Dr. llavard to be 
found wild in many places west of the Pecos." 

Concerning its origin, C. Conzatti, in " Los Generos Vegetales 
Mexicanos,"' p. 348, states : 

. . . Es genero introflticido del Tiejf) Mundo, y de S se cultlva entre 
nosotros una de las dos esficf-ies que conjirende : C. lulf/aris Schrad., 6 " Cidra- 
cayote." ' 

According to De Bry the watermelon is — 

Une plante dout I'origiue est ineeitaiiie dapres les auteurs. Lton^ (.Sp., p. 
14.^'>) dit: "Habitat In Apulia. Calabria. Sicllia." Seringe (Prodr., Til, p. 301) 
dit: "in Africa et India." Puis il ajoutf une varift^ dCcrite au Brfsil par 
MarcKraf, ce qui complique encore la question. . . . 

I.a planehe et le texte de Jlarcgraf (Bran., p. 22) me paraissent blen .s'ap- 
pliquer a, la Pasteque. D'un autre cotf, rien ne prouve que la plante n'eOt pas 
^x^ apportee au Bresil pas les Europeens, si ce n'est le fait d'un nom vulgaire 
Jaee, mais I'arguineiit n'est pas fort. XIarcgraf cite aussi des noms europOens. 
II ne ilit pas que I'espfece fQt .spontanee, ni tr^s gen^ralement cultivije. Sloane 
I'indique comme cultivf-e a la .Tamafque (I. p. 220). sans pretendre q'elle fflt 
omfiricaine, et assurement le silence des premiers auteurs, sauf Marcgraf. le 
rend blen peu probable.' 

Je eonelus de ce qui pr6cMe que toutes les esijcces <le citruUun f-niim^'T^s 
dans la synonymie que j'lii donnfe ci-dessus n'en font qu'une: que cette es|)^ce. 
toujours annuelle. et par la facile a distingner de la Coloquinte officinale, est 
essentiellenient africaine; qu'elle exlste encore a I'ftat sauvage en Afrique. et 
qu'elle est cultivee depuis un temps immfimoriai dans la valiee du Nil. d'oft 
elle a paas6, meme anciennement, chez la jilupart des peuples civilises du bassln 
mgditerran^n Aujourd'bui, elle existe dans tons les pay chauds de la terre. et 
comme les graines en sont jetdes au hasard, partout oil on la consomme, il n'y 
a rien, d'fitonnant qii'on la retroiive a demi-siiuvage dans beaucoup de contrfes 
oil elie n'existait certainement pas primitivement.' 

Saka<'ide uke<'i°. the common watermelon, was known to the Omahas before 
the coming of the white men. It ha.s a green rind, which is generally strii)e<l. 
and the seeds are black. It is never drie<l, but is always eaten raw, hence 
the name. They had no yellow saka^ide till the whites came; but they do 
not eat them.' 

The Mahas [Omahasl .seem very friendly to the whites, and cultivate corn, 
beans, melons, squashes, and a small species of tobacco [Nicotiana quadri- 
valvis].^ 



» Conzatti. I.OS fJi^nerna Vpgptalps Moxlranos. p. ?4S. 
' lie I'andolle. Gef)Kraphie Botanlque. Tome 2. p. n08. 

•Naufim. Rpvuc de.s Cucurbltac^jos. Annales des Sciences .\aturnll.-s. 4- Scrle. Tome 
XII, pp. 107-108. 

• norspy. Omaha Sodolojry. p. 30(5. 

» Bradbury, Travels In the Intprior of America, p. 77. 



122 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS (eth. ann. 33 

Wntcriiieli'iis are cultivated in Kreiit plenty in the English and French- 
Aiiierlciin c.ilonies, and there is hardly ii peasant here who has not a field 
lihinted with them. . . . The Indians plant creat quantities of watermelons 
at present, but whether they have done it of old is not easily determineti. 
For an old < )nldoe Iialian (of the six Iroquese Nations) assured me that the 
Indians did not know watermelons liefore the Kuropeans came into the 
couuiry uud communicated them to the ludiaus. The French, on the other 
liand. have assure<l me that the Illinois Indians have had abundance of this 
fruit, when the French first came to them, and that they declare, they had 
plantwl them since times immemorial. However, I do not remember ha\ing 
read that the Europeans, who first came to North America, mention the 
watermelons in sfieaklng of the dishes of the Indians of that time.^ 

After several miles of marchinj; along extensive and well-cultivate<l fields of 
squashes, pumpkin.s. beans, melons, and corn the Dragoons reached the village. 

Here then was the Toyash or Pawnee Pict village, the main goal of this ex- 
pe<lition. . . . Col. Dodge encamped in a fine position about a mile from the 
village, and the hungry Dragoons were soon enjoying the Inilian hospitalities. 
Dishes of corn and beans dre.ssed with buffalo fat were placed before them. 
For dessert the soldiers enjoyed liberal supplies of watermelons and wild plums.= 

When Garces was among the Tumas in 177.5 they were raising "countless" 
calabashes and melons — ralahazus ii iiivlotics — perhaps better translated 
sfpuishes and cantaloupes, or p\impkins and muskmelons. The Piman and Yuman 
tribes cultivated a full assortment of eucurbitaceous plants, not always easy to 
Identify by their old Spanish names. The Sandia was the watermelon invari- 
ably ; the melon, usually a muskmelon, or cantaloupe; the calabaxa, a calabash, 
gourd, pumpkin, or squash of some sort, including one large, rough kind like 
our crook-neck squash." ' 

JfKI.ON.S AMOXn THE NATCHEZ 

Father Petit in a letter to Father d'Avatigtior, from New Orleans, 
July 12. 1730, writes. "Each year the people assemble to plant one 
vast field with Indian corn, beans, pumpkins, and melons, and then 
again tlie\' collect in the same way to gather the harvest."* 

The vegetables they [the Iroquois] cultivate most are Maize, or Turkey corn, 
French beans, gourds, and melons. They have a sort of gourd smaller than 
ours, and which ta.ste much of sugar [squa.shes] : they boil them whole in water, 
or roast them under the ashes, and so eat them without any other preparation. 
The Indians were acquainted, before our arrival in their country, with the com- 
mon and water melon.' 

Toute sorte de Melons croissent ft souhait dans la Louisiane; ceux d'Espagne, 
de France, el les melons Anglois. que Ton nomine melons blancs, y son infiniment 
meilleurs que dans les Pays dont lis portent le noni : mais les plus exeellens de 
tons sr)nt les melons d'eau. Conune lis sont pen connus en France, ofl Ton n'en 
volt gufres que dans la Provence, encore sont-ils de la petite esp&ee, je crois que 
Ton ne domie trouvera point mauvais que j'en la de.scription. 

' Knlm. Travpls Into North Amorlca, vol. 2, p. 385. 

'PelziT. Henry Dodgp. p. 100. 

Mluascll. The Pima Indians, p. 01. 

'.fi'nuit Rrlntliinn, vol. fiS, p. l^T. 

'Cbarlevolx, Journal of a Voyage to North .\merira, vol. i. p. 2.50. 



°"-^'0«^] TAXONOMIC LIST OP PLANTS 123 

La tise (le <e melon ranipe comrae celle ties notres, et seien.l jusqu-ft dlx „i.Ms 
de 1 endro.t rVoQ elle sort de terre. Elle est si delicate, que lorsqu'on I'^-rase en 
niarchant dessus. le fruit ineurt ; et pour peu qu'on la froisse. il sY-chaude Les 
feuiUes sont tres dfe-oupfes, d'un verd qui tire sur le verd de .„er et lari-es 
comme la main quat>d elles sont .,uvertes. Le fruit est ou ron.l comme les 
potirons, ou long: il se trouve de bons melons de cotte deniiiVe espDce- mais 
ceux de la premiere esp&ce sont plus estimes, et meritent de I'etre. I^ poi'ds des 
plus gros passe rarement trente livres ; mais celui des plus petits est toujours au 
dessus de dix livres. Leur cote et d'un verd paie. mel§ de grandes laches 
blanches, et la chair qui louche a cette cote est blanche, crue. et d'une verdeur 
desagr&ible: aussi ne la mange t-on jamais. L'intfrieur est rempli par une sub- 
stance legere et brillante comme une neige. qui seroit de couleur de rose: elle 
fond dans la bouche comme seroit la neige meme. et laisse un goQt pared & 
clui de cftte eau que Ton prepare pour les malades avec de la gel6e de groseille 
Ce fruit ne pent done etre que tr^s rafraichissant, et il est si sain que de quelque 
maladie que I'on soil attaque, on pent en satisfaire son appftit sans crainte d'en 
etre incommode. Les melons d'eau d'Afrique ne sont point a beaucoup prt>s si 
deiicieus que ceux de la Louisiane. 

La graine du melon d'eau est plac^ comme celie du melon de France; sa 
figure est ovale, plate, aussi fpaisse a ses extremities que vers son centre, et 
ft environs six lignes de long sur quatre de large: les unes I'ont noire et les 
autres rouge; mais la noire est la meilleure. et c'est celle qu'il c(mvient de 
semer pour etre assure d'avoir de hems fruits. pourvO qu'on ne la mette pas dans 
des lerres fortes, oQ elle dSgenereroit et deviendroit rouge.' 

TRANSLATION 

All kinds of melons grow adnilralil.v well in Louisiana. Tho.se of Spain, 
of France, of England, which last are called white melons, are there infi- 
nitely finer than in the countries from which they have their name; but the 
best of all are the watermelons. As they are hardly known in France, except 
in Provence, where a few of the small kind grow, I fancy a description of 
them will not be disagreeable to the reader. 

The stalk of this melon spreads like ours upon the ground, and extends 
to the length of ten feet. It is so tender that when it is in any way bruised 
by treading upon it the fruit dies ; and if it is rubbed in the least it is 
scorched. The leaves are very much divided, as broad as the hand when they 
are spread out, and are somewhat of a sea-green colour. The fruit is either 
round like a pompion. or long. There are some good melons of this last 
kind, but the first sort are the most esteemed and deservedly so. The 
weight of the largest rarely exceeds thirty pounds, but that of the smallest is 
always about ten pounds. Their rind is of a pale green colour, intersperse<l 
with large white spots. The substance that adheres to the rind is white, 
crude, and of a disagreeable tartness, and is therefore never eaten. The 
space witliin that is filled with a light and sparkling substance, that may 
be called for its properties a rose-coloured snow. It melts in the mouth as 
if it were actually snow, and leaves a taste like that of the water prepare<I 
for sick people from currant .ielly. This fruit cannot fail, therefore, of being 
very refreshing, and is so wholesome that persons in all kinds of distempers 
may satisfy their appetite with it, without any apprehension of being the 
worse for it. The watermelons of Africa are not near so refreshing as those 
of Louisiana. 



I Le Page ilu Pratz. nistolre de la Louisiane. Tome 2. pp. 12-14. 



224 USES OF PL.\NTS BY INDIANS [eth, ann. 33 

The Krtils of wuterriiel.iiis are like those of French melons. Their shape 
In oviil uikI Hut, belli); as thick at the ends as towards the middle; their 
lenirth Is about six lines, and their breadth four. Some are black and others 
red ; hut the black are the best, and it is those yon ought to chuse for sowing. 
If you would wish to have the best fruit; which you can not fail of if they are 
not ijlunte.1 in strong ground where they would degenerate and become red. 

MELOX.S tiKOWX BY INDIANS OK VIIKUNIA ICCIXIHE THE COMING OF 
WHITE MEN 

. . . but none of the Tolls of Husbandry were exercised by this happy 
re<jple, except the bare planting a little Corn and Melons, . . . And indeed 
ull that the T:n(ilish have lione since their going thither, has been only to 
make some of these Native Pleasures more scarce. . . . hardly making Im- 
proveiuents equivalent to that Damage.' 

MELONS FOUND HY I,A SALLE IN TEXAS IN lt>87 

This instrument [wooden hoe] serves them instead of a hoe, or spade, for 
they have no iron tools. When the land has been thus tilled, or broken up, the 
women sow and plant the Indian corn, beans, ponipioiis. watermelons and 
other grain and garden ware, which is for their sustenance. [Account of the 
Cenis, (Caddos), 1687.]' 

. . . we met a company of Indians, with axes, going to fetch barks of trees 
to cover their cottages. They were surprised to see us, but having made signs 
to them to draw near, they came, caressetl and presented us with some water- 
melons they had . . . We halted in one of their cottages, . . . There we met 
several women who had brought bread, gourds, beans and watermelons, a sort 
of fruit jiroper to quench thirst, the i>ulp of it being no better than water.^ 

WA'IEl!.MEIiON.S AMONC. THE ILLINOIS 

We c(mtinue<l some time in Fort I^ouis [on the Mississippi among the Illinois) 
without receiving any news. Our business was, after having heard mass, which 
we had the good fortune to do every day, to divert ourselves the best way 
we could. The Indian women daily brought in something fresh ; we wanted 
not for watermelons, bread made of Indian corn, baked in the embers, and 
other such things, and we rewarded them by little i)resents in return.* 

The natives of the country about (among the Poutouatannis [Pottawatomies] 
which Is half way to Michilimaquinay ) till the hind and sow Indian corn, 
melons and gourds," 

MEIXJNS AND OTHEIt CTLTIVATED PLANTS AMONO TRIBES OF WESTERN 
I'RAIRIES 

The savage peoples who inhabit the prairies have life-long goo<i-fortune ; 
animals and birds are found there in great numbers, with numberless rivers 
abounding In fish. Those people are naturally very industrious, and devote 

'Bpverlpy, History of Virginia (1705), Book ii, p. 40. 

-Cox, Journeys of La Salic, vol. ii, p. 13'J. 

"Ibid., pp. 1!)0-191. 

♦Ibid., p. 222. 

•Ibid., p. 229. }: . 



""•"""^l TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 125 

themselves to the rultivntion of the soil, which is very fertile for Indian corn 
I p.oauees also beans, squashes (both small and large) of excellent flavor, 
f.u.ts. and n.an.v k.nds of roots. The.v have in es,«<ial a certain method o^ 
preparing squashes with the Indian corn cooked while in its milk, which ihev 
mix ami cook to^^ther and then dry, a food which has a very swe.-t taste 
Finally, melons frrow there which have a jui.v no less a^-r.'.'abl.. than re- 
freshing." 

The relation „f Marquette-s first v.yage. 1(;7:}-I(i77. mentions "melons whi.'h 
are excellent, especially those that have red seeds." anion}; the Illinois = 

Thence we a.scended to Montreal. . . . The latitude is about ' that of 
Bordeaux, hut the climate is very agreeable. The s,.il is excellent, and if the 
Gardener but throw some Jlelon seeds on a bit of loosened earth' among the 
stones they are sure to grow without any attention on his part. Squashes are 
raised there with still greater ease, but dilTer much from ours— some of them 
having when cooked, almost the taste of .ipples or of pears.' 

W.\TERMELOXS AMOSC. CtLTIV.\Ti:i) CROI'S OI' VlRcM.M.V I.\lil.\.\:; 

Several Kinds of the Creeping Vines bearing Fruit, the hnHanH planted in 
their (Jardens or Fields, because they would have I'l<>nty of them always at 
hand: such as .Musk-melons, Watermelons. I'onipions, Cushaws. Macocks and 
Gourd.s. 

1. Their Musk-melons resemble the large Italian Kind, and generally till 
Four or Five (Quarts. 

2. Their Water-melons were much more large, and of several Kinds, dis- 
tinguished by the Colour of their Meat and See<l ; .some are re<l. some yellow, 
and others white nieate<l ; and so of the Seed ; .some are yellow, some red, and 
.some black ; but these are never of different colours in the .same Melon. This 
Fruit the Muscovites call Arpus; the Turks and Tartars Karpus. because they 
are extremely cooling: The Prrsiaus call them Hindanims, because they had 
the first Seed of them from the Iiulir.i. Tliey are excellently good, and very 
pleasant to the Taste, as also to the Eye; having the Rind of a lively green 
colour, streak'd and water'd, the Meat of a Carnation and the Stn'd black and 
shining, while it lies in the Melon. 

,S. Their Tompions I need not describe, but must say they are much larger and 
finer, than any I ever heard of in England. 

4. Their Cushaws are a kind ol; Ponipion. of a blui.sh green colour, streaked 
with White, when they are fit for Use. They are larger than the Pompions, 
:md have a long, narrow Xeck. Perhaps this may be the Krushair of T. 
Harriot. 

."). Their M<irorl;s are a sort of Milapciioms. or lesser sort of Pompion or 
cushaw. Of the.se they have great Variety ; but the Indian Name Macocb 
.serves for all, which Name is still retain'd among them. Vet the Cli/piatw 
are sometimes called C'limmls. (as are some others also) from the Lenten Cake 
of that Xame, which many of them very much resemble. Squash, or Squanter- 
Squash, is their Name among the Northern Indians, and so they are call'd in 
Nctiy-York and Xrw-England. These being boil'd whole, when the Apple is 
young, and the Shell tender, and dished with Cream or Butter, relish very 



■Perrot. M^molre, in Blair, Indians of the Tppor Mississippi, vol. I, p. ll.t. (Writ- 
ten probably during 1080 to 1718.) 
'Jesuit Relations, vol. 59, p. 129. 
' Relation of 1062-1063, in Jesuit Relations, vol. is, p. 169. 



126 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [::Tn axx. 33 

well wltli ull sorts of Butcher's Meat, either fresh or salt. And whereas the 
I'oiiiplon Is never eaten till It be ripe, these are never eaten after they are ripe. 

6. The Indians never eat the Gourds, but plant them for other uses . . . 
ITheyJ use the Shells. Instead of Flagons and Cups. . . . 

7. Tlie Mamiork. which is the Fruit of what we call the Passion-Flower, our 
Natives did not take the I'ains to plant, having enough of it growing every- 
where ; tho' they eat it . . . this Fruit is about the Size of a Pullet's Egg. 

Besides all the.se, our Natives had originally amongst them, Indian Com, 
I'eas, Bean.s, Potatoes, and Tobacco. This Indian Corn was the Staff of Food, 
upon which the Indians did ever depend. . . . 

There are Four Sorts of Indian Corn: Two of which are early ripe, and Two, 
late ri]*, all growing in the same manner; every single Grain of this when 
piantitl, produces a tall, upright Stalk, which has several Ears hanging on the 
Sides of it, from Six to Ten Inches long. Each Ear is wrapt up in a Cover of 
many Folds, to protect it from the Injuries of the Weather. In every one of 
these Ears are several rows of Grain, set close to one another, with no other 
Partition, hut a very thin Husk. So that oftentimes the Increase of this 
Grain amounts to above a Thousand for one. 

The T«i) Sorts which are early ripe, are distinguish'd only by the Size, which 
shows it.self as well in the Grain as in the Ear and the Stalk. There is some 
lUfference also in the Time of ripening. 

The lesser Size of Early rijie Corn yields an Ear not much larger than the 
Handle of a Case Knife, and grows upon a Stalk between Three and Four Feet 
high. Of this are commonly made Two Crops in a Year, and, perhaps, there 
ndght be Heat enough in England to ripen it. 

The larger Sort differs from the former only in Largeness, the Ear of this 
being Seven or Eight Inches long, as thick as a Child's Leg, and growing upon 
a .Stalk Nine or Ten feet high. This is fit for eating about the latter End of 
Hay. whereas the smaller Sort (generally speaking) affords Ears fit to roast 
by the middle of May. The grains of both these Sorts are as plump and swell'd 
as if the Skin were ready to burst. 

The late riiie Corn is diversify'd by the Shape of the Grain only, without any 
Respect to the accidental Differences in colour, some being blue, some red, 
some yellow, some white, and some streak'd. That therefore which makes the 
Kistlnction, is the Plumpness or Shriveling of the Grain; the one looks as 
smooth, and as full as the early ripe Corn, and this they call Flint-Corn; the 
other has a larger grain, and looks shrivell'd, with a Dent on the Back of the 
Grain, as if it had never come to Perfection; and this they call Slie-Cprn. 
This is esteem'd by the Planters as the best for Increase, and is universally 
chosen by them for planting; yet I can't see but that this also produces the 
Flint-Corn, accidentally among the other. 

All these Sorts are planted alike, in Uows, Three, Four or Five Grains in a 
Hill ; the larger sort at Four or Five feet Distance, the lesser Sort nearer. 
The Indiana usefl to give It One or Two Weedings, and make a Hill about it, 
and so the labour was done. They likewise plant a Bean in the same Hill 
with the Corn, uiwn whose Stalk it sustains itself. 

The Indiana sow'd Poas sometimes in the Intervals of the Rows of Corn, but 
more generally in a Patch of Ground by themselves. They have an unknown 
Variety of them (but all of a Kidney-Shape), some of which I have met with 
Willi; hut whence they had their Indian Corn I can give no Account; for I 
don't believe that it was spontaneous in those parts. 

Their Potatoes are either red or white, about as long as a Boy's Leg. and 
sometimes as long and as big as both the Leg and Thigh of a young Child, and 



r.iLMOEE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 127 

ri""f ^^^'^'"'^"n? it in Shape. I take these Kinds to be the same with 
those which are represented in the Ilerbals to be Spanish Potatoes I a^ 
sure, those call d English or Irish Potatoes are nothing like these, either In 
Shape. Colour, or Taste. The Way of proKasatins Potatoes there. Is hy cuttinR 
the small ones to Pieces, and planting the ("uttinKs in Hills of loos^ Earth 
but they are .so tender, that it is very diffl<-Ult U, preserve them in the Winter 
for the least Frost coming at them, rots an.l destroys them, and therefore 
People bury 'em under Ground, near the Fire-Hearth all the Winter until the 
Time comes, that their Seedings are to be set. 

How the Indians order'd their Tobacco I am not certain, thev now dependinf; 
chietly upon the English for what they snioak ; but I am informd thev use<l 
to let it all run to Seed, only succouring the Leaves to keep the Sprouts from 
growing upon, and starving them ; and when it was ripe, they pulPd off the 
Leaves. cure<l them in the Sun, and laid them up for Use. But the Planters 
make a heavy Bustle with it now, and can't please the Market neither." 

CULTIVATED CROrS, INDIANS OF VIItOINTA: MELONS 

Pagatowr a kind of graine so called hy the inhabitants; the same in the 
West Indies is called Mayze; Englishmen call it Guinney-wheate or Turkle 
wheate, according to the names of the countrey from whence the like hath been 
brought. The graine is about the bignesse of our ordinary English peaze and 
not much different in forme and shape: but of divers colours: some white, 
some red. some yellow and some blew. All of them yeelde a very white and 
sweete flowre being according to his kinde. at maketh a very good bread. 
Wee made of the same in the countrey some mault. whereof was brued as good 
ale as was to bee desired. So likewise by the help of hops thereof ma.\ bee 
made as good Beere. . . . 

Okindgier, called by us beanes, because in greatnesse and partly in sliajie 
they are like to the Beanes of England, saving that they are Hatter. 

Wickonzowr, called by us peaze, in resjiect of the beanes for distlnitidii 
sake, because they are much lesse ; although in forme they little differ. . . 

Macocqwer. according, to their severall formes, calle<l by us. Pompions. 
Mellions. and Gourdes, because they are of the like formes as those kitules in 
England.' 

I have also seen. once, a plant similar tn the Melon of India, with fruit the 
size of a small lime.' 

He does not state at what stage of <rrowth lie .s;iw it " the size of 
a small lime." He mentions jjumpkins in the same Relation. 

They [the Illinois Indians as seen by him on his first visit] "live by game, 
which is abundant in this country, and on Indian corn |bled d"in<lej, of which 
they always gather a good crop, so that they have never suffered by famine. 
They also sow beans and melons, which are excellent, especially tho.se with a 
red seed. Their squashes are not of the best: they dry them in the sun to 
eat in the winter and spring.* 

'Beverley, nistory of Virginia, Book ii, p. 26 et secj 
= Ilariot. A. Bi-ii-fc and Truf Keport. pp. 1.{-H. 

"Brcssani's Relation, 1652-1653. in Jesuit RelationH. vol. 38, p. 243. 
« Narrative of Father Marquette, in Frencli, Historical Collrrtionx nf Lmiiniana. pt. iv, 
p. 33. 



128 VSES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. ANN. 33 

Dt>Cltll'nn.\ OK DOMESTIC LIFE OF VIIttilMA INDIANS IN 15S5; MENTION 
OF MELONS. 

From De Bry: 

•' Si>nip of their towns . . . are not inclosed with a palisiide, and are much 
more plciisanl : .Secotan, for example, here drawn from nature. The bouses 
are more scjittere<l, and a greater degree of comfort and cultivation is ob- 
.servtHl, with gardens in which tobacco ... is cultivated, woods filled with 
deer, and fields of corn. In the fields they erect a stage ... in which a 
seiitr.v is .stationed to ginird against llu- depredations of birds and thieves. 
Their corn the.v plant In rows .... for it grows so large, with thick stalk 
and liroad leaves, that one plant would stint the oilier and it would never 
arrive at maturity. They have al.so a curious place . . . where they convene 
with their neighbors at their feasts. . . . and from which they go to the feast. 
On the opposite side is their place of prayer .... and near to it the sepulcher 
of their chiefs . . . They have gardens for melons . . . and a place . . . where 
they Imllil their sacred fires. .\t .•! little distance from the town is the pond 
. . . from which they obtain water." ' 

In the light of what T had heard from the TiuUans and what I 
found in the writin<rs of the first white men who came in contact 
with the trihcs. T wrote to several persons, whose replies follow ; these 
are self-explanatory. 

... As to Shawnees raising watermelons before the advent of our white 
brethren. I doubt It ; I have never heard of their raising any melons except 
those whose seed was first given them by the early .Jesuit fathers when tliey 
lived on the Wapakoneta in Ohio. Uowever, they did raise a small pumpkin, 
which tbey called by a name meaning " little pumpkin." from which T de<luce 
that lliey iirobably raisetl a larger variety, but of which they seem to have lost 
the seed. 

DECESlnKR 4, 1!)14. PlERREPONT .\LF0RD, 

Kronturhku. Oklii. 

I regret that I can not give you anything worth while about watermelons In 
North .\merica. I have met the, plant throughout the eastern United States, 
particularly in the Southern States, but only as an escape. 

Januaby 12, 1914. . J. K. Small, 

New York Botanic Garden, 
liron-x Park, Netc York City. 

We have the small round melon with the small black seed. TVe sell it under 
the name of the Pickaninny. ... I don't know anything about the origin of 
this variety ; we got it from a woman In Kansas. 

Januaby 13, 1914. Henby Field Seed Co., 

By Henry Field, President. 

We have your favor of the 8th Instant, and In reply mail you a copy of 
Huriiee's Annual for 1914, and for small fruited variety of watermelon refer 
you to the Baby Delight, describe<l on page 21. We also have offered for 
several .seasons seed of Burpee's Hungarian Honey watermelon, which is early, 



• De Bry, quoted by Tbomas, Mound Explorations, p. 62 



oaMOEE] TAXOXOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 129 

small in size, and has de^inre.! flesh of finest quality The see<l of Baby 

iJehght, you will note, is not blark. but of a liRlit brown 

JaSUAEV 14, 1914. „•. ATLEE I'.UBPEE & Co.. 

Philadelphia, Pa. 
Tour letter received. I di.l not answer at once because I wished to confer 
with ITof. Thoburn, who has been ab.sent from the university Investigating 
some njounds suppo.sed to be of hi.storical interest. 

He agrees with me tliat the watermelons to wliich you refer in your letter 
are what are iK)pularly known as the " volunteer melon." I have a ranch in 
an Indian neifchborhood and the so-calle<J '• pie melon " or citron Is almf>st a 
pest. The " volunteer melons " are not unusual and they often hybridize 
with the "pie melon." This may account for the fact that tlie "volunteer 
melon " differs from the ordinary melon of commerce. Wliile I liave no proof 
to sustain my statement, I do not l>elieve that the melon Is Indigenous to 
Olciaboma. 

Should there develop any further information in regard to the subject I 
shall be glad to communjcate with you further. I shall be much interested 
in the results of your investigation and hope to keep in touch with tUe work 
which you are doing in tliis line. 
Ja.nuaey 23. 1914. A. H. Van Vleet, 

Pro/cHHor of liinloyy and Utan of the Uraduair 

School, the University of Oklahoma. 
MiCRAMPELis LOBATA (Miclix.) Greene. TVilrl Cunimber. 
W afiriaKn/ihecha ( Dakota ) . 
^\'ata"</fha ((Jniaha-Porica), from v-ata"., s(iuash or melon, and 

i"fffha, ghost ; ghost melon. 
An Oglala said the seeds were used for beads. 

C A M PA N ULACEAE 

Lobelia cardinalis L. Red Lobelia, Cardinal Flower, Red Betty. 

This species is peculiar in its situation in Nebraska, in that it is 
found in some isolated areas, all within the ancient domain of the 
Pawnee Nation. These areas are far distant from any other region 
in which the species is found. It is listed among " Species peculiar 
to the Republican Di.strict.'" ' Again "Lobelia cardinalh and L. 
infatcu, which are known for one or two stations in III [Sand Hill 
region] along the southern edge of the State."* 

In another part of the present work the suggestion is made that 
the presence of this species in the Pawnee country may be due to 
introduction by Pawnee medicine-men. This explanation is sug- 
gested in view of the value placed on the mystic powers attributed 
to the species by that people. One use of this plant was in the 
composition of a love charm. The roots and flowers were the parts 
used. Other plants combined with Lohdia in compounding this 
charm were roots of Pann-n r/uwqwfoHum and AngeUra" and the 
seed of C'oqswf'llia dnurifolw. 

'Clpmcnts and Pound, Phytog<>ograph.T of Nebraska, p. 81. 

'Ibid, p. 297. 

• Sep discussion of Vanai. 



130 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. ass.33 

COMI'OSITAE 

Hklianthus Axxurs L. Sunflower. 

Waluha-zizi (Dakota), "yellow flower" [waKcha, flower; zizi, re- 
duplication of zi, yellow). 

Zha-zi (Omaha-Ponca), "yellow weed" {zha, weed; zi, yellow). 

Kirik-tara-ka-ta (Pawnee), "yellow-eyes" {kirik, eye; tara, hav- 
ing ; kata, yellow ) . 

I can not find that the sunflower was ever cultivated by any of the 
Nebraska tribes, although its culture among eastern tribes is re- 
ported by explorers, and it was and still is cultivated by the Arikara, 
Alandan, and Hidatsa in North Dakota. P. de Charlevoix, in a 
letter written in April, 17:21, mentions smiflowers as one of the crops 
of tlie tril>es of eastern Canada. 

The soleil is nnother very common plant in the fields of the Indians, and 
which rises to the height of seven or eight feet. Its flower, which is very 
thick, has much the same figure with that of the marigold, and the seed is 
disitosed in the same manner; the Indians extract an oil from it by boiling, 
with which they anoint their hair. ' 

Champlain observed the sunflower cultivated by Indians in Canada 
in 1G15.= 

All the country where I went [vicinity of Lake Simcoe, Ontario] contains 
some twenty to thirty leagues, is very fine, and situated In latitude 44° 30'. 
It is very extensively cleared up. They plant in it a great quantity of Indian 
corn, which grows there finely. They plant likewise squashes, and sunflowers, 
from the seeil of which they make oil, with which they anoint the head. . . . 
There are many very good vines and plums, which are excellent, raspberries, 
strawberries, little wild apples, nuts, and a kind of fruit of the form and color 
of small lemons, with a similar taste, but having an interior which is very 
good and almost like that of figs. The plant which bears this fruit is two and 
a lialf feet high, with but three or four leaves at most, which are of the shape 
of those of the fig tree, and each plant hears but two pieces of fruit. [Podo- 
phyllum peltatum, May apple?] 

Among the Teton Dakota a remedy for pulmonary troubles was 
made by boiling sunflower heads from which the involucral bracts 
were first removed. The Teton had a saying that when the sunflowers 
were tall and in full bloom the buffaloes were fat and the meat good. 
A Pawnee said that the seeds pounded Uf) with certain roots, the 
identity of which is not yet ascertained, were taken in the dry form, 
without further preparation, by women who became pregnant while 
still suckling a child. This was done in order that the suckling child 
should not become sick. The sunflower is mentioned in the Onon- 
daga creation myth.^ 

' CliarIi>volx. Journal of a Voyage to North America, vol. i, p. 250. 
'Champlain'g Voyages, vol. iii, p. 119. 
• Hewitt, Iroquoian Cosmology, p. 174. 



GILMOEE] TAXOXOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 131 

HzLiA>sTHUs TUBEEOsrs L. Jerusalem Artichoke. I PI ;iu h ) 
Pa-gi (Dakota). ^ ^-^^,0.) 

PwKe (Oniaha-Ponca). 

Pa"M (Winnebago). 

KUu-sit (Pawnee) : ki.m, tapering: sit. long. 

The people of all the Nebraska tribes sav thev never cultivated 
this plant, though they used its tubers for food. The Pawnee sav 
they ate them only raw, but the others, according to their own state- 
ment, ate them either raw or boiled or roasted. 

Champlain reports seeing IltUanihus tuhero»m under cultivation 
by Indians near Cape Cod in 1605 and again at Gloucester in 1606.» 
Eatibida coLr^ixARis (Sims) D. Don. 

^ya}u■ha-zl chikala (Dakota), little u-aJicha-zi {chikala, little). 

An Oglala said the leaves and cylindrical heads of this plant were 
used to make a beverage like tea. 

Echinacea AXGrsxrEOLiA DC. Xarrow-leaved Purple Cone Flower. 
Comb Plant. (PI. 30, a.) 
IchaTipe-hu (Dakota), ■' whip plant " {ichaKpe, whip). 
Mika-M COmaha-Ponca), " comb plant " {rmka, comb) : also called 
(ki/jaJim. to comb: also called i^shtogalite-Jii. referring to its use 
for an eye-wash ({"shta, eye). 
Ksapitahako (Pawnee), from iksa. hand: pit-ahnko, to whirl. The 
name refers to its use by children in play when they take two 
stalks of it and whirl one round the other, the two stalks touch- 
ing by the two heads. Also called >'<aparidu kaht-'<. mushroom 
medicine, so called from the form of the head, compared to a 
mushroom ( saparidu ) . 
This plant yras universally used as an antidote for snake bite and 
other venomous bites ami stings and poisonous contlitions. Echi- 
nacea seems to have been used as a remedy for more ailments than 
any other plant. It was employed in the smoke treatment for head- 
ache in persons and distemper in horses. It was used also as a 
remedy for toothache, a piece being kept on the painful tooth until 
there was relief, and for enlarged glands, as in mumps. It was 
said that jugglers bathed their hands ami arms in the juice of this 
plant so that they could take out a piece of meat from a boiling kettle 
with the bare hand without suffering pain, to the wonderment of 
onlookers. A Winnebago said he had often used the plant to make 
his mouth insensible to heat, so that for show he could take a live 
coal into his month. Bums were bathed with the juice to give relief 
from the pain, and the plant was used in the steam bath to render 
the great heat endurable. 

1 Champlain's Voyages, pp. S2, 112. 



132 I-'Sl-S OF PI.AT;TS BV IXDIANS [eth. ann. 33 

SiLPiia-M I'EKKoLiATU.M L. Cup-phint, S(iuare-stem, Angle-stem. 
Zha taiuja (Omaha-Ponca), big-weed, because of its size; ashude- 
kithe because of the use of root stocks in tlie smoke treatment ; 
and zlui-haho-hi, weed with angled stem {zha, weed; haho, hav- 
ing corners; hi, plant body). 
Rake-ni-ozhit (Winnebago), w'eed that holds water (/v/Ze, weed; ■;*/, 
water; ozku, in, full or containing). Another name is rake- 
para jxiratsh, square- weed {paraparatsh, square). 
The root stock of this plant was very conmionly used in the smoke 
treatment for cold in the head, neuralgia, and rheumatism. It was 
used also in the vapor bath. A Winnebago medicine-man said a 
decoction was made from the root stock which was used as an emetic 
in preparatory cleansing and lustration before going on the buffalo 
hunt or on any other important undertaking. It was thus used 
also for cleansing from ceremonial defilement incident to accidental 
pro.ximity to a woman during her menstrual period. 
SiLPiiiusr LACiNiATt'M L. Pilot Weed, Compass Plant, Gum Weed, 
Kosin AVeed. 
Cha.''shi-shi''Ja (Dakota), Teton dialect, cha^shUshihja. 
Zha-pa (Omaha-Ponca), bitter weed {sha, weed; pa, bitter), and 

maka'^-ianga, big medicine, or root. 
Shoka''wa-hu (Winnebago), gum plant {sJwko'"'wa, gaTo) . 
Kahts-tawas (Paw-nee), rough medicine (kahtsu, medicine; 
tawas, rough) ; also called niikhokiit or 7iakhu-kiitsu {nakku, 
pine ; kiitm, water) . 
The children gathered chewing gum from the upper parts of the 
stem, where the gum exudes, forming large lumps. The Omaha and 
Ponca siiy that where this plant abounds lightning is very prevalent, 
so they will never make camp in such a place. The dried root was 
burned during electrical storms that its smoke might act as a charm 
to avert lightning stroke. According to a Pawnee a decoction made 
from the pounded root was taken for geneial debility. This prep- 
aration was given to horses as a tonic by the Omaha and Ponca, and 
a Santee Dakota said his people used it as a vermifuge for horses. 

Ambrosia elatior L. Ragweed. 

AMiite Horse, an Omaha medicine-man, said that this plant was 
an Oto remedy for nausea. In the treatment the surface of the 
abdomen of the patient was first scarified and a dressing of the 
bruised leaves was laid thereon. 

Boebera papposa (Vent.) Rydb. Fetid Marigold, Prairie-dog Food. 
Pizpiza-ta-wote (Dakota), prairie-dog food (pizpiza, prairie dog; 

wote, food; ta, genitive sign). 
Pezhe piazhi (Omaha-Ponca), vile weed, referring to its odor 

ipezhe. herb; piazhi, bad, mean, ^^le). 
Askntstat (Pawnee). 



UREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 30 




ECHINACEA ANGUSTIFOLIA INTERSPERSED WITH STIPA SPARTEA 

Photo by courtesy of Department of Botany, Iowa State Agricultural College 





9 






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'*^^^''^'''^ffi^^3l9||^^^H 



t), TQPS AND TUBEKb 



I HUS TUBER0SU5 



OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY TH I RT Y-TH I RO AN NU AL REPORT PLATE 30A 




LACINARIA SCARIOSA 



Q.LMORE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS I33 

The Teton Dakota say that this phint is always found in p.uine- 
dog towns, and that these animals cat it. A decoction of Boehe-ra 
together with Gufwryesui is used as a medicine for coughs in 
horses. 

According to the Omaha it will cause nosebleed and they use it 
for that purpose to relieve headache. The leaves an.l tops, pulver- 
ized, were snuffed up the nostrils. 

GtJTiERREziA SAROTHRAE (Pursh) Britton & Rusby. Broom- weed. 

A decoction of the herb was given to horses as a remedy for too 
lax a condition of the bowels. They were induced to drink the bit- 
ter preparation by preventing tliem access to any other drink. 
Grindelia sqxtarrosa (Pursh) Dnnal. Sticky Head. 

Pte-ichi-yulia (Dakota), curly buffalo (/>/r, buffalo; hhl, together; 
yuKa, curly, frizzly). 

Pezhe-wasek (Omaha-Ponca), strong herb {waxck^ strong). 

Bakshitits (Pawnee), stick-head {hnk^ head; sJdfifs, sticky). 

Among the Teton Dakota a decoction of the plant was given to 
children as a remedy for colic. A Ponca said this was given also for 
consumption. The tops and leaves were boiled, according to a 
Pawnee infonnant, to make a wash for saddle galls and sores on 
horses' backs. 

SoLiDAGO sp. Goldenrod. 

Zha-sage-zl (Omaha-Ponca), hard yellow-weed (zha, weed; sage, 
hard; 2/, yellow). 

Goldenrod served the Omaha as a mark or sign in their floral 
calendar. They said that its time of blooming was synchronous with 
the ripening of the corn;. so when they were on the summer buffalo 
hunt on the Platte River or tlie Republican River, fai- from tlieir 
homes and fields, the sight of the goldenrod as it began to bloom 
caused them to say, " Now our corn is beginning to ripen at home." 

Aster sp. Prairie Aster. 

An unidentified prairie aster was declared by a Pawnee to be the 
best material for moxa. The stems were reduced to charcoal which, 
in pieces a few millimeters in length, was set on the skin over the 
affected part and fired. 

Laciniaria scariosa (L.) Hill. Blazing Star. (PI. .'50 A.) 

Ao"f(xshe (Omaha-Ponca); also called m/ik.a''-,saf/i, hard medicine. 
Kahtsii-daw/du or kahtm-rawidu (Pawnee), round medicine 

{kahtsu, medicine; rawidu or dauridu, round). 
A Pawnee said the leaves and conn were boiled together and the 
decoction was given to children for diarrhea. An Omaha made the 
statement that the conn after being chewed was blown into the 



134 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [ETH. ANN. 33 

nostrils of horses to enable them to run well without getting out of 
lircath. It was supposed to strengthen and help them. The flower 
lieaiis mixed with shelled corn were fed to horses to make them 
swift and put them in good condition. 
AcHTLLEA sriLLEFOLiTTAr L. Yarrow, Milfoil. 

IIa"k-nintgh (Winnebago), woodchuck tail {ha^k, woodchuck; 
nntxh. tail). Named from the appearance of the leaf. 

An infusion of this herb was used by the Winnebago to bathe 
swellings. I"or earache a wad of the leaves, also the infusion, was 
put into the ear. 
Artemisia DRAcrNrrxoiDEs Pursli. Fuzzy-weed. 

Iha-wta-ki (Oniaha-Ponca) . 

Rake-hi"f!hck (AVinnebago), bushy weed, or fuzzy weed (rakr, 
weed; hi'^shek, bushy, fuzzy). 

Kihapiliicus (Pawnee), broom {kihMru, broom; piliwun, to sweep). 

Among the AVinnebago the chewed root was put on the clothes 
as a love charm and hunting charm. The effect was supposed to be 
secured by getting to windward of the object of desire, allowing the 
wind to waft the odor of the herb thither. The Omaha ascribed the 
same powers to this species and used it in the same ways as they did 
the gray species of this genus next mentioned. It was used also in 
the smoke treatment. A W'iiineliago luedicine-man said a handful 
of the tops of tliis species dipped into warm water served as a 
sprinkler for the body to relieve fevers. According to a Pawnee in- 
formant a decoction made of the tops was used for bathing as a 
remedy for rheumatism. Brooms for sweeping the lodge floor were 
made by binding together firmly a bundle of the tops. Fi'oni this 
use comes its Pawnee name. The plant was liked for this purpose 
because of its agreeable, wholesome odor. 

Artemisia frigida Willd. Little Wild Sage. 

Wia-ta-pezhihuta (Dakota), woman's medicine {wia, woman; fa, 
genitive sign; pes/uhufa, medicine). The name refers to its use 
as explained farther on. 
Pezhe-Rota zkinga (Omaha-Ponca), little gi-ay herb {pezM, herb; 

Kota, gray; zhinga, little). 
KiiPoJiki (Pawnee). 

A (icccK'tion of this species was used for bathing and was also taken 
internally by women when menstruation was irregular; hence the 
Dakota name. 

Artemisia oxaphalodes Nutt. AViUl Sage. 
PezMJiota hlaska (Dakota), flat pezhihota. 
Peske-Kota (Omaha-Ponca), gray herb. 



"'"■' TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS I35 

Bwwlnska {Winnoh^go). white l.erl, (/,.,"„.;-. Iu>,-1,: ,./.„, whito) 
Kiwaut (Pawnee). 

All that is said of this species applies in ,sre„eral to all speeies of 
Artemisia. 

A bunch of Arf,;n.mi, was sometimes used for ,, towel in old time= 
A decoction of the plant was taken f.,r stoma.'h troubles and many 
other kinds of ailments. It was u.sed also for bathing. A person who 
had unwittingly broken some taboo or had. touched any sacred 
object must bathe with Artemis;a. The immaterial essence or to 
use the Dakota word, the to", of Artcmhia was believed to be effec- 
tual as a protection against maleficent powers; therefore it was 
always proper to begin any ceremonial by using Artejnhhi in order 
to drive away any evil influences. As an example of the use among 
the Omaha of Artemisia to avert calamity it is related that two 
horses ran wild in the camp, knocking down the Sacred Tent. Two 
old men, haying caught the horses, rubbed them all over with wild 
sage, and said to the young son of their owner, " If you let them do 
that again, the buffaloes shall gore them."' 

In the ceremonies of the installation of a chief among the Omaha 
wild sage was used as a bed for the sacred pipes.- One of the per- 
sonal names of men in the Te-sinde gens of the Omaha tribe is 
Pesh^-hota.^ 

It has already been mentioned tliat the various species of Arte- 
misia were used in old times as incense for the purpose of exorcising 
evil powers. It has also been stated that cedai- twigs or sweet grass, 
either one, were used as incense to attract good powers. Some 
Christian Indians also still employ all these species as incense for 
these specific purposes, in church services, especially at Christmas. 
Easter, Pentecost, and on occasion of funerals. The writer has 
seen the use of Artenmia as an incense before a church door just 
before the body was carried into the church. A small fire was made 
before the steps of the church, Artemisia tops being used to raise a 
cloud of smoke. 
Arctittm minus Schk. Burdock. 

This plant is a European introduction, probably not earlier than 
the time of the first overland traffic by horses, mules, and oxen. It 
is even now found commonly only along or near the old military 
roads. It has been adopted by the Indian.s for medicinal use. 
\^^lite Horse, of the Omaha, gave information, which he had obtained 
from the Oto, of a decoction of the root being used as a remedy 
for pleurisy. 



' Porsoy. Omaha Sociology, p. 235. 
' Ibid., p. 359. 
'Ibid., p. 244. 



J36 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS |eth. ann. 33 

Lyi:oi>ksmia .iuxcea (Pursh) D. Don. Skeleton Weed. 

Tlie Omaha and Ponca made an infusion of the stems of Lygo- 
iliKiiuii for sore eyes. Motliers having a scanty supply of milk also 
drank this infusion in order to increase the flow. 

In the north where l>ilphium lacinkitum is not found Lygodesrma 
was used for producing chewing gum. The stems were gathered 
and cut into pieces to CiUise the juice to exude. When this hardened it 
was collected and used for chewing. 

AXC'IKNT AND MODERN PHYTOCULTURE BY THE 
TRIHES 

In former times the plants cultivated by the tribes inhabiting the 
region which has become the State of Nebraska comprised maize, 
beans, scjuashes, pumpkins, gourds, watermelons, and tobacco. I 
have not found evidence of more than one variety esich of tobacco 
and watermelons. By disturbance of their industries and institu- 
tions incident t« the European incui'sion they have lost the seed of 
the larger number of the crop plants they formerly gi'ew. By seafch 
among several tribes I have been able to collect seed of many more 
varieties than any one tribe could furnish at the present time of the 
crops once grown by all these tribes. Of maize (Zea mays) they 
cultivated all the general types, dent corn, flint corn, flour corn, 
sweet corn, and pop corn, each of these in several varieties. Of beans 
(Phnseohis vulgaris) they had 15 or more varieties, and at least 8 
varieties of pumpkins and squashes {Pepo sp.). 

After diligent inquiry, the only cultivated crop plants of which I 
am able to get evidence are corn, beans, squashes and pumpkins, 
tobacco, and sunflowers. These are all of native origin in the South- 
west, having come from Mexico by way of Texas. But a large num- 
ber of plants growing wild, either indigenous or introduced by human 
agency, designedly or mulesignedly, were utilized for many purposes. 
No evidence ap])ears that any attempt was ever made looking to the 
domestication of any of these plants. The reason for this is that the 
necessary incentive was lacking, in tliat the natural product of each 
useful native plant was always available. In their semiannual hunt- 
ing trips to the outlying parts of their domains, the Indians could 
gather the products belonging to each phytogeogi-aphic province. 
The crop jdants which they cultivated, however, were exotics, and 
hence sui)plemented their natural resources, thereby forcing a dis- 
tinct adjunct to the supply of provision for their needs. 

But since the advent of Europeans the incentive is present to 
domesticate certain native plants which were found useful. This 
incentive arises from the fact that the influx of population has 
greatly reduced or almost exterminated certain species, and, even if 



CONCLUSION 



137 



the luit.u-al supply sliould suffice, the present restriction in ranee 
and movements of the Indians wouUl prevent them fn.m ohtaining 
adequate quantities. This restriction results fron. the ciiaufred .„„ 
ditions of hfe and occupation, which nece.s«itate tlieir remaining 
at home attendmg to the staple agri.-ultural crops or working at 
whatever other regular employment they have chosen. As a con- 
sequence, I have found in every tribe the incipient stage of domesti- 
cation of certain wild fruits, roots, and other plant products for 
food or medicinal use, for smoking, <>r perfume. I have thus been 
prnileged to see the beginnings of culture of certain plants which 
m future time may yield staple crops. In this way a lively con- 
ception can be formed of the factors which in jH-ehistoric time 
brought about the domestication in P^urope and Asia of our present 
well-known cultivated plants. 

CONCLUSIOX 

From tliis partial survey of the botanical lore of the tribes of 
the region under consideration we may fairly infer, from the general 
popular knowledge of the indigenous plants, that the tribes found 
here at the European advent had been settled here already for 
many generations and that they had given close attention to the 
floral life of the region. From the number of species from the 
mountain region, on one hand, and the woodland region, on the 
other, and also from the distant southwestern desert region, which 
they imported for various uses, we know they must have ti'aveled 
extensively. 

The several cultivated crops grown by the trii)es of Nebraska are 
all of southwestern origin, i)robal)ly all indigenous to Mexico. From 
this fact we can see that there was widely extended borrowing of 
culture from tribe to tribe. 

The present study suggests the human agency as the efficient factor 
in the migration of some species of wild plants, or ])lants growing 
without cultivation. If this be the true explanation it atl'ords the key 
to the heretofore puzzling isolation of areas occupied by certain 
species. 

From the floral nomenclature of each tribe we find that tiiey had 
at least the meager beginning of taxonomy. The names aiii)lied to 
plants show in many instances a faint sense of relationship of species 
to species. 

My informants generally showed keen jjowers of jjerceiUion of 
the structure, habits, and local distribution of plants throughout a 
wide range of observation, thus numifesting the incipiency of phyto- 
geography, plant ecology, and morphology. The large numi)er of 



138 USES or PLANTS BY INDIANS (bth. ann. 33 

species used and their many uses show considerable development of 
priuticiil plant economy, or economic botany. 

All these considerations of the relations between the aboriginal 
human population and the flora of the region are instructive to us 
as indicative of what mu&l have lieen the early stages in the develop- 
ment of our own present highly differentiated botanical science. In 
this study of ethnic botany we have opportunity to observe the be- 
ginnings of a .sA'stem of natural science which never came to maturity, 
being cut off in its infancy by the superposition of a more advanced 
stage of cidture by an alien race upon the people who had attained 
the degree of culture we have here seen. 



GLOSSARY OF PLANT NAMES 



139 



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USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS 



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GLOSSARY OF PLANT NAMES 



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142 



USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS 



[ETH. ANN. 3<l 



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GLOSSARY OF PLANT NAMES 



143 



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144 



USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS 



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GLOSSARY OF PLANT NAMES 



145 



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74936°— 19— 33 ktu 10 



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USES OK PLANTS BY INDIANS 



[LTH. ANN. 33 



(iloHsnry of plant namcH mentioned in this monograph — Continued 

ARKASr.ED ALPIIABETUALLY UNDER DAKOTA NAME 



Ao*yo]rapi (also Uustu*' 

kft). 
rbuodi (Toton dialect 

HmMi). 

Cha"huloKa J'ozhuUi 

Chtt'^husu" 

rhaMyuwp 

Cha^-nu^pa 

Champa 

Cha" r©ihuUi 

Cha^^-shasha hiochaka . . . 

Cha^-shasha '. 

Cha^shi-shinla (Teton 

dialect ChanshilshilyaV 
Cha'>:iihushka (also Tash- 

kada«). 

Cha" witlyo 

Chap' ta baza 

Chaputa 

Cha^su 

Chaoti 

Chiaka 

Hastaohooka 

Uaote (or Haote shu) 

Ilasla^ka 

Aetiaka ta pezhnta 

lleyoka tapezhiim 

Hinte-cha" 

Hma 

Hupestola 

IchaQpe-hti 

Ka^t© 

Maka Cha"shi"shi" 

Maka chiaka 

Maka ta omiiieha 

Mashti°cha-puto 

Mdo (Teton bio) 

Mna 

Omnlcha 

O'lhi-thintka 

Pangi 

l^'Mjha" 

rvitaiipa 

r'Mututupa 

Pcrhl-hota-»)liiSka 

PethihutaZi 

Pezhuta na^tiazilia 

Peihuta pa 

Ptzplzata wote 

Polpie 

Psa 

PsettU- 

Pshl- 

Pahltola 

PsW 



Scicntincnaine. 

Prunus besseyi. 

Nicotiana quadrlvalvis. 

Verbena hastata. 
Acer saccharum. 
Uumulus americana. 
Polystictus versicolor. 
I'adus nana; }*adus me- 

lanocarpa. 
WashinRtonia longistylus. 
Cornus stoloiiifera. 
Cornus amomum. 
Silphium laciniatum. 

Acer negundo. 

Usnea harbata. 
Ribes araericanum. 
Sambucus canadensis. 
Hicoria ovata. 
Rhus glabra. 
Mentha canadensis. 
Vitiscinerea. 
Juni penis virginiana. 
Prunns besseyi. 
Monarda fistulosa. 
Malvastrum coccineum. 
Tilia americana. 
Juglans nigra. 
Yucca glauca. 
Echinacea angustifolia. 
Prunus americana. 
I.ygodesmiajuncoa. 
Hcdeoma hispida. 
Falcala comasa. 
Lepargyrea argentea. 
Glycine apios. 
Viburnum lentago. 
I*haseoIus \iilgaris. 
Rosa pratincola. 
Hetianthus tuberosus. 
Ulmu-s americana. 
Ulmus thomasi. 
Ulmusfulva. 
Artemisia gnaphalode,s. 
Dasystcphana puberula. 
Callirrhoeinvolucrata. 
Parosela aurea. 
Boebera papposa. 
AlHonia nyctaginea. 
Scirpus validus. 
Fraxinus sp. 
Allium mutabile. 
Sagittarialatifolia. 
Zizaniaaquatica. 



Pt^ichi-yuha 

Pte ta wote 

Sakajrutapi 

Shiakipi 

Sinkpe ta wote 

Tado 

Tahado 

Tuka'-hefha 

Tamaniohpa , 

Tanpa (Teton Cha'^ha 
sa")- 

Tashkada° (also Cha"*- 
shushka). 

Taspao 

Tewape 

Tichanicha , 

Tipsi" , 

Toka hupepe 

U^kchela 

Xlma 

Uskuyecha 

Uta 

Wachanga 

Wachanga i yechecha 
(also Walipe wa- 
changa). 

Wagii-cha" 

Wabcha toto; flcha- 
mdu toto. 

Waficha-zi chikala 

Wahcha-zizi 

VVagamu" pezhuta , 

Wafinahnahecha 

Wafinahna , 

Waftpe popa , 

WaBpe toto 

Walipe wachanga (also 
Wachanga iyechecha). 

Wahpe washtemna 

Wamnu 

Wamnaheza ( Teton 
Wagmeza). 

Wamnuha 

Wanalicha 

Wazhushtecha 

Wad 

Wazimna 

Wia ta pezhlhuta 

Wichattdeshka 

Wihuta-hu 



Scientific name. 



(Jrindelia squarrosa. 

< ! eoprumnon crassicar- 

pum. 
('itrulluscitrullus. 
Kumex crispus. 
Acorus calamus. 
Heracleum lanatum. 
Acer saccharinum. 
Rubus occidentalis. 
Physalis heterophylla. 
Betula papyrifera. 

Acer negundo. 

Crataegus sp. 
Nelumbo lutea. 

Psora lea tenuiflora. 
Psoralea esculenta. 
NuttalUanuda. 
Opunlia humifusa. 
Corylus americana. 
Quercus macrocarpa. 
Quercus rubra. 
Savastana odorata. 
Melilotus alba. 



Populus sargentii. 
Tradescantia virginica. 

Ratibida coluninaris. 
Helianthus annuus. 
Pepofoetidissima. 
Micrarapelis lobata. 
Gymnocladus dioica. 
Salixsp. 

Chenopodium album. 
Melilotus alba. 

Monarda fistulosa (fra- 
grant variety). 

Pepo pepo; Pepo maxi- 
ma. 

Zea mays. 

Cucurbita lagenaria. 
I'etalwJtemum purpure- 

um; Petalostemumcan- 

didum. 
Fragaria virginiana. 
Pinussp. 

Thalictnun dasycarpum. 
Artemisia frigida. 
(Irossularia missourien- 

sis. 
Typha latifolia. 



GLOSSARY OF PLANT XAMES 



147 



Glossary of plant )wmcs mentioned in this monograph— CUmtUnieiX 
ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY UNDER DAKOTA NAME-Conlinued 



Dakota name. 



Wipjiznka 

Yaminnnnugapi 
Zuzecha ta wole 



Scientific name. 



tMycyrhiza lepidota. 
Ainelanchier alnifolia. 
Celtis occidentalis. 
relastrus scandens. 



Dakota name. 



Scientiflc name. 



Zuzechatawolesapsapa. Symphoricarpcs syn 

I phoricarpos; Symphoi 

icarpos occidenuHs. 



ARRANGED ALPnABETICALLY UNDER OMAITA NAME 



Scientific name. 



Omaha name. 



Agth&muogi ' Rubus occidentalis. 

A<5ntashi (also Makd"- , Laciniaria scariosa. 



Bashte 

Bazu-m 

Buude 

DuwAduwa-hi 

Ezhoa 

Ezhc-ska 

Ezho-'-zi 

Ezhon-zhide (or Ezhoo- 
gthigthide). 

Gansatho 

Gube 

Hazi 

Hinbthiabe 

Hiobthinge 

Hinbthi-si-tanga 

Hinde-hi 

Hthi-wathe-hi 



Hanuga-hi (also Mana- 

zhiha-hi), 
Hade-bthaska 



Hade-zhide 

Ingthahaziitai. 



Ingtliahaziitai. 



Inubthonklthe-sabe-hi. 
Inshtogafite-hi 



Izna-kithe-iga-hi (also 

Pezhe-pa mi^ga. 
Kande 

Kiu-maka" (also Maka"- 



Maa-zho° 

Maazi 

Ma^e-idhe-shnaha. . 
l£aka° 



Fragaria \"irginiana. 
Lithospermum canescens 
Quercus rubra. 
Yucca glauca. 
UJmiis sp. 
Ulmus americana. 
Ulmus thomasi. 
Ulmus fulva. 

Astragalus caroUniana. 
Celtis occidentalis. 
Vitis cinerea. 
Kalcata comosa. 
Phaseolus vulgaris. 
Lathyrus ornatus. 
Tilia americana. 
Toxicodendron toxico- 
dendron. 
Urtica gracilis. 

Cogswellia daucifolia. 

lonoxalis violacea; Xan- 
thoxalisstricla. 

Andropogon furcatus. 

Parthenocissus quinquo- 
folia. 

Menispermum cana- 
dense. 

Aquilegia canadensis. 

Symphoricarpos sym- 
phoricarpos; Sympho- 
ricarpos occidentalis. 

Monarda fistulosa var. 

Prunus americana. 
Asclepias tuberosa. 

Populuasargentii. 
Juniperus \irginiana. 
Equisetximsp. 
Lophophora wilLamsii. 



Makai>-bashash6°shoo . . 
Makao-ninida , 

Maka"-sagi (also Ao^- 

tashe). 
Maka'^saka (also Kiu- 

maka"). 

Makao- skithe 

Maka°-skithe 

Maka<i-skithe 

MakaManga 

Maka°-wasek * 

Maka^-zliide 

Maka'i-zhide sabe 

Ma^sa-bti-hi 

Ma°zhonka mantanahu. 

Mi-'bdi-hi 

iUka-hi (also I^ shtugah- 
te-hi). 

Mika-hi 

Mikasi maka« 

Minigathe-maka^-waii . 

Naiipa Tanga 

Naopa Zhinga 

Nanshaman 

Xa^tita 

Naze^ni Pezhe 

Niashiga Maka^ 

Ninigafie-liti 

Ninigahe Zhide 

Nisude-hi 

No'-sl 

Nu 

Nugthe 

Pa^fie 

Pelie 

I'ezhi lUhasha 

Pezhe fiota 

Pezhe-Bote Zhinga 

Pezhe Piazhi 

Pezhe-gasatho 

Pezhe-raaka° 



Scientific name. 



J*h>-sali.<; lanceolata. 
Acorus calamus. 
LacinJaria scariosa. 

Asclepias tuberosa. 

Humulus americana. 
Iris versicolor. 
Petalostemum purpur- 

eum; Petal ostemuBi 

candidum. 
Siliphium laciniatum. 
.■Villoma nyctaginea. 
Erythrina flabelliformis. 
Melia azedarach. 
Cornus asperifolia. 
Allium mutabile. 
Rhus glabra. 
Echinacea angustifolia. 

Stipa spartea. 
Arisaema triphylhim. 
Sauguinaria canadensis. 
I'runiwbesseyi. 
Padus nana; Padus me- 

lanocarpa. 
Viburnum lentago. 
< ; ymnocladus dioica. 
ChamaesyceserpyllifoUa. 
Pepo foetidissima. 
Cornus stolonifera. 
C'ornus amomum. 
Th:ilictrum dasycarpunu 
nicoriaovata. 
(Jlycinoaplas. 
Psoralea esculenta. 
Hehanlhus tulwrosus. 
Cucurbita lagenaria. 
Cogswellia daucifolia. 
Artomi.sia gnaphalodea. 
Artemisia frigida. 
Boebera papposa. 
Acuan illinoensis. 
Verbena has tata. 



148 



USES OF PLANTS BV INDIANS 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



CloHMiu 0/ iiluni luimrs mentiontd in this xioMOff/op/i— Continued 
ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY UNDER OMAHA NAME-Contmued 



Omaha name. 



.Sciontiflc name. 



Tube 'Nubthw . . . 

r«ib»-pa 

I'uhr-pa Ml'ga 

Veth» ZoiLsta 

I'ethe-ioiuta cga" . . 

Peihe-wnsek 

IVlgatu-sh 

Perl 

Vezi nuga 

Sa-hl 

Saka-thidc 

Shanga makao 

She 

Sinie makan 

81« 

Sl'waninde 

Tabe-hl 

Tashka 

Tashnanga-hi 

Taspa" 

Tdlka-shanda 

Tdlka-shanda Nuga 

Tdage 

Te-hu°to»-hl 

Te-hu»to»-hl Nuga . 

Tethawe 

T«-ihinga Maka°. . . 



Mentha canadensis. 

Mooarda Qstulosa. 

.Monarda flstulosa f fra- 
grant variety). 

Savastana odorata. 

Melilotus alba. 

Orindclia scjuarrosa. 

Physalis heterophylla. 

Grossularia missourien- 
sis. 

Ribes americanum. 

Scirpus validu.'i. 

Citrullus citrullus. 

Wa-ihingtonia longisty- 
lis. 

Malus ioensis. 

Plantago major. 

Sagittaria latifolia. 

Zizania aquatica. 

Ceanothus amerieana. 

Quercus macrocarpa. 

Fraxinus sp. 

Crataegu.s sp. 

Geopnimnon cras.sicar- 
pum. 

Baptisia bracteata. 

Juglans nigra. 

Amorpha cane.scens. 

Le-spedeza capitata. 

Nelumbo lutea. 

Anemone canadensis. 



Tbasata-hi. 



ThiBe-sage-hi 

U»ihinga 

Wagathashka 

Wahaba 

Wahabigaskonthe. . 

Wahaba-hthi 

Walitha 

Wana-'ha-i-monthi" 
Wata" 



Wata"gtha 

Wathfbaba maka" 

Waii pezhe 

Wenu sliabethe hi 

Wazhide 

Zhaba raaka" 

Zhaba ta zho" 

Zha-pa (also Maka"- 
tanga). 

Zha-sage-zi 

Zba-tanga 

Zha-zi 

Zhon-hoji-wazhide 

Zhon-hoda 

Zhon-pahlthatha 



) Zho^zi-zhu 

i Zhu - nakada - tanga ■ 
maka". 



Scientific name. 



Artemisia dracuncu- 
loides. 

Salixsp. 

Corylus amerieana. 

Sambucus canadensis. 

Zea mays. 

Typha latifolia. 

Ustilago maydis. 

Asclepias syriaca. 

Euonymusatropurpurea, 

Pepo pepo; Pepo maxi- 
ma. 

Micrampelis lobata. 

Anemone cylindrica. 

Galium triflorum. 

Acer saccharinum. 

Rosa pratincola. 

Heracleum lanatum. 

Acer negundo. 

Silphium laciniatum. 

Solidago sp. 
Silphium perfoliatum. 
Helianthus annuus. 
Lepargyrea argentea. 
Amelanchier ainifolia. 
Zanthoxylum america- 

nimi. 
Toxylon pomiferum. 
("aulophyllum thalic- 

troide.s. 



ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY UNDER WINNEBAGO NAME 



Winnebago name. 


Scientific name. 


Wixmebago name. 


Scientific name. 


Chak 


Juglans nigra. 
Quercus macroairpa. 
Crataegus sp. 
Achillea millefolium. 
Physalis lanceolata. 
Vitiscincrea. 
Artemisia gnaphaUxle.s. 
Rhus glabra. 
Grossularia missovirien- 

sis. 
Fragaria virginiana. 
Amelanchier ainifolia. 
Lepargyrea argentea. 
Erythronium mesochore- 

um. 
Tilia amerieana. 


Honink 












Huksik.. 










Hanpok-hischa^u 










Ba^ win-ska 


Maka^-chaliiwi-cho 


Dasystephana puberula. 


Haz-ponoponoh 
















Hat-shutsh 












Hedto-shuUh 








PanRi 




Hi-shke 


l*efi-hishuji 


Sanguinaria canadensis. 



"^■^1 GLOSSARY OF PLANT NAMES 

Glo.^ary of pUint ,mmes mcntiom,! in thU moHo,„„p/,_Coiul,med 
AKUANGED ALPHABETICALLY UNDEU XVIXNERAGO XAME-Con,la«eU 



149 



Winnebago name. 



Rak 

Rake-hinshu)c 

Rake-ni-ozhu (also Uake- 
paraparatsh). 

Rulii 

RuHi-shutsh 

Shi^hop 

Shokanwa-hu 

SU 

Sioporo 



Fraxinus sp. 
Artemisia dracuncu- 

loides. 
Silphium perfoliatum. 

Salix sp. 

Comus amomum. 
Allium mutabile. 
Silphium laciniatum. 
Zizania aquatica. 
Sagittarialatifolia. 



Winnebapo name. 



Tdo 

Tdokewihi 

Toshunuk-aliiin^hk 

Tsherapo 

Wake-warutxh 

Wakidikidik 

Wanaghi-iiaz 

Wissep-hu 

Wuwu 



Glycine apios. 

Psoralea esculenta. 

Smilax herbacea. 

Nelumbolutea. 

Celtis occidentalis. 

L'lmus fulva. 

M e n 1 s p e r wni m cana- 

dense. 
Acer saccharinum. 
Viburnum lentago. 



ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY UNDER PAWNEE NAME 



Akiwasas , 

Aparu , 

Aparu-huradu , 

Askutstat , 

Atit 

Atit-kuraru , 

Atikatsatslks (also Kits- 
its^s). 

Bakskitits 

Chakida kahlsu 

Hakakut 



Scientific name. 



Hakasits . 



Hakastah-kata 

Hawahawa (also Kirit- 

tachamsh). 
Its 



Kaapsit 

Kahts'-ha-itu 

Kabts'-kiwaharu 

Kahtsu dawidu , 

Kahts' pirakari , 

Kahts'Takat 

Kahts'Taraha 

Kahts'-Tawas (also Na- 
kisokiit). 

Kahts '-tuwiriki 

Karipika 

Karipika tsitsiks 



Kataaru 

Kiditako 

Kiharpiliwus 

Kiha-piliwus-hawastat . 

Eirik-tara-kata 



Viburnum lentago. 
Rubus occidentalis. 
Fragaria virginiana. 
Boebera papposa. 
Phaseolus \Tilgaris. 
Falcata comosa. 
Acuan iUinoensis. 

Grindelia squarrosa. 
Yucca glauca. 
Menispermum cana- 
dense. 

Zanthoxylum america- 

num. 
Cuscuta paradoxa. 
Typha latifoha. 

Glycine apios. 
Celtis occidentalis. 
Acorns calamus. 
Mentha canadensis. 
Laciniaria scariosa. 
Rumex hj'menosepalus. 
Allionia nyctaginea. 
Washingtonia longisty Us. 
Silphium laciniatum. 

Ipomoea leptophylla. 

Asclepias syriaca. 

liichrophyllum margina- 
tum. 

Savastana odorata. 

Fraxinus sp. 

Artemisia dracimculoi- 
des. 

Petalostemum purpur- 
eum; P. candidum. 

Heliantbus annuus. 



(also 



Ivirit 

Kirit-tacharush 
Hawahawa). 

Kisusit 

Kisuts 

Kitapato 

Kitsitsaris (also Atika- 
tsatslks). 

Kitsarius 

Kitsuhast 

KiwoRki 

Ksapi tahako 

Kus aparu karuts 

Laritsits 

Nahaapi nakaaruts 



Naliata pahat 

Nakasis 

Nakipistatu 

Xakitsku 

Natakaaru 

Nikakitspak 

Nikiis , 

Nikso kor6rik kahtsu 

nitawiii. 

Niwaharit 

Nuppikt 

Osako 

Osidiwa (or Osidiwa 

Tsahiks). 

Pahatu 

Pakarut 

Parus-as 

Patki natawawi 

Patsuroka 

Pidahatus 

Pira-kari 

Pithahat usaki ts Tsuhast 



Sagittaria latifolia. 
Typha latifoUa. 

Beliantlius tuberosus. 
%'itis cinerea. 
Salix sp. 
Acuan illinoensis. 

Chenopodium album. 
Amorpha fruticosa. 
Artemisia frigida. 
Echinacea angustitolla. 
Primus besseyi. 
Lepargyrea argentea. 
Padus nana; P. melano- 

carpa. 
Querciis rubra. 
Uva-ursi uva-ursl. 
Cornus stolonifera. 
Toxylon pomiferum. 
Populussargentii. 
Physalis heterophylla. 
Zea maj-s. 
Arisaema triphyllum. 

Pnmus americana. 
Rhus glabra. 
Acer negund(). 
Allium mutabile. 

Rosa pratincola. 
Equi.setumsp. 
Le^pedeza capitala. 
Quercus macrocarpa. 
Psoralea e.sculenta. 
Opuntiahumifusa. 
Baptisia braoteata. 
Glycyrhita lepidota. 



150 



USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS 



OloHsary of plant tuimc-s mcntiotied in this monograph — Continued 
AUKANGED ALPHABETICALLY UNDER PAWNEE NAME— Continued 



Scientific name. 



rit5nt5 

Rapahat 

SahpakskiLsu.. 

Salitaku 

i?Lstat 

Skadlks 

Skali-katit.... 
Skidadihorit . . 



Skirariu. . 



Stipa spartea. 
Comus amomum. 
Hicoria o\*ata. 
Julians nigra. 
Scirpus validus. 
Thalictrum dasycarpiun. 
AquiJegia canadensis, 
lonoxalis violacea; Xan- 

thoxaHsstricla. 
Sambu<^iis canadensis. 



I^awneename. 



Taitsako 

Taitsakopahat.. 
Taitsako taka... 

Tawatsaako 

Tohuts 

Tsostu 



Tsusahtu . 
Tukawiii.. 



Scientific name. 



Ulmus sp. 
Ulmus fulva. 
Ulmus americana. 
Juniperus virginiana. 
GjTnnocladus dioica. 
Monarda fistulosa (fra- 
grant varietj-). 
Monarda fistulosa. 
Nelumbolutea. 



ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY UNDER COMMON ENGLISH NAME 



Common English name, j 



Scientific name. 



Common English name. Scientific name 



American elm 

A merican loins 

Anemone 

Angle stem , 

Ash 

Arrowlear 

Bean 

Bearberry 

Beaver root 

Big milkweed 

Birch, paper 

Bittersweet 

Black haw 

Black rattle pod 

Black walnut 

Blazing star 

Bloodroot 

Blue cohosh 

Itlueflag 

Blue Joint grass; blue 
stem grass. 

Box elder 

Buck brush 

BufTalopea 

Buflalo berry 

Bulrash 

Burdock 

Burning bush 

Bush morning-glory 

Butterfly weed 

Calamus 

Canoigre 

Cardinal flower 

Cat- tail 

Cedar 

China berry 



Ulmus americana. 
Nelumbolutea. 
Anemone canadensis. 
Silphium perfoliulum. 
Fraxinus pennsylva- 

nica. 
Sagittaria latifolia. 
Phaseolus ^mlgaris. 
Uva-ursi uva-ursi. 
Heracleum lanatum. 
Asclepias sjrriaca. 
Betula papyrifera. 
Celastrus scandens. 
Viburnum lentago. 
Baptisia bracteata. 
Juglans nigra. 
Laciniaria scariosa. 
Sanguinarla canadensis. 
Podophyllum peltatum. 
Iris versicolor. 
Andropogon furcatus. 

Acer negundo. 
Symphoricarpos occiden- 

taiis. 
Geoprumnon crassicar- 

pum. 
Lepargyrea argentea. 
Scirpus validus. 
Arctium minus. 
Euonymus atropurpu- 

rea. 
Ipomoea leptophylla. 
A.sclepias tuberosa. 
Acorus calamus. 
Rumex hymenosepalus. 
I-obelia cardinalis. 
Typha latifolia. 
Juniperus virginiana. 
Melia azedarach. 



Chokecherry 

Comb plant 

Compass plant 

Com 

Com smut 

Cottonwood 

Cow parsnip 

Cup plant 

Coralberry 

Dodder 

Elderberry 

Elm 

False lupine 

Fetid marigold 

Flame lily 

Fragrant bedstraw 
Fuzzy weed 

Gentian 

Ginseng 

CJoldenrod 

Gooseberry 

Gourd 

(i round bean 

Ground cherry 

Ground plum 

Gum weed 

Hackberry 

Hard maple 

Hazelnut 

Hickory 

Hop 

Horsemint 

Indian potato 

Indian tea 

Iowa crabapple.. . 



Padus nana; Padus me- 
lanocarpa. 

Echinacea angustifolia. 
Silphiimi laciniatiun. 
Zea mays. 
Ustilagomaydis. 
Populus sargentii, 
Heracleum lanatum. 
Silphium perfoliatum. 
Symphoricarpos sym- 

phoricarpos. 
Cuscuta paradoxa. 
Sambucus canadensis. 
T"lmus. 

Therm opsis rhombi folia. 
Boeberapapposa. 
Lilium imibellatum. 
GaUum triflorum. 
Artemisia dracunculoi- 

des. 
Dasystephana puberula. 
Panax quinquefoUum. 
Solidago. 
Grossularia missourien- 

sis. 
Cucurbita lagenaria. 
Falcata comosa. 
Physalis heterophylla. 
Geoprumnon crassicar- 

pum. 
Silphium laciniatum. 
Celtis occidentalis. 
Acersacchanun. 
Corylus americana. 
Hicoria ovata. 
Humulus americana. 
Monarda fistulosa. 
Glycine apios. 
Ceanothus americana. 
Mai us ioensis. 



GLOSSARY OF PLANT NAMES 



151 



Glossary of plant names mciitUmed in this monograph — ConUnued 

ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY UNDER COMMON ENGLISH NAME-Conllnued 



rommon English name. 


Scientific name. 


Common English name. 


Scientific name. 


Iris 


Iris versicolor. 
Arisaema triphyllum. 
Amelanchier ahiifolia. 
Hflianthus tuberosus. 
Oymnocladus dioica. 
Cornus amomum;Cornus 

stolonifera. 
Galium triflonim. 
Chenopodium album. 
Usnea barbata. 
Tilia americana. 
Astragalus caroUniana. 
Lobelia eardinalis. 
Cogswellia daucifolia. 
Cuscuta paradoxa. 
Menispermum caiia- 

dense. 
Stipaspartea. 
Trtica gracilis. 
Toxylon pomifenun. 

Betulapapyrifera. 
Pulsatilla patens. 

Viburnum opulus. 
Hedeomahispida. 

l.ophophora williamsii. 

Pinus murrayana. 

Plantago major. 

Toxicodendron to.xico- 
dendron. 

Phytolacca americana. 

Stipaspartea. 

Boeoerapapposa. 

Rosa pratincola. 

Petalostemura purpu- 
reum; Petalostemum 
candidum. 

Zanthoxylum ameri- 
canam. 

Opuntia humifusa. 

Lithospennum canes- 
cens. 

Lycoperdon gemmatum. 

Pepo pepo. 

Echinacea angustifolia. 

Callirrhoe involucrata. 

Lespedeza capitata. 

Ambrosia elatior. 

Malvastmm coccineum. 

Ulmus fulva. 

Crataegus. 

Quercus rubra. 

Ceanothus americana. 

rimus thomasi. 

Artemisia cana; Artemi- 
sia tridentAta. 




PrunusWsseyl. 
Amelanchier alnifolia. 
Kquisetum. 
Quercus macrocarpa. 
Viburnum lentago. 
lonoxalis violacea. 
Amorphacanescens. 
l.ygodesmia Juncea. 


Jack-in-lhe-pulpit 






Scouring rush 


"Jemsalem artichoke".. 


Kentucky coffee tree.... 




KinTiikinnirk 








Ladies' bouquet 




Lamb's-quarters 






Slough gra'^s 


Sjmrtina michauxiana. 

Uhus glabra. 

Symphoricarpos occiden- 
talis. 

Dicrophyllum margi- 
natum. 


Linden 


Little rattle pod 




Lobelia 


Snow-on-the-mnimtain.. 






Moonseed 






Rumex crispus. 




Spanish bayonet 


Nettle 






Tradtwcantia \irgimca. 
Trade.scantia virginica. 


















Silpliium perfoUatum. 
Pepo maxima. 
Grindeliasquarrosa. 






Pine . . . 
























Us. 






Prairie-dog fennel 
































Nicotianarustica; Nico- 




tianatabacum. 
Polvstictus versicolor. 




Tuberous sunflower 


Hehanthus tubero.sus. 










Parthenoclssus quinqiie- 






folia. 


Purple coneflower 










Monarda fistulosa (fra- 




Water chinquapin 

Watermelon 


grant variety). 


Red false mallow...- 


Nehmibolutea. 
CitrulUiscitruUus. 






Amorpha fruticosa. 


n^H 


White elm 


Ulmus ameriama. 




Wild black currant 

Wild black raspberry... 
Wild blue verbena 


Ribes americanum. 




Rubus occidentalis. 




Verbena hastata. 




Aquilegia canadensis. 









152 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS Ikth. asn 

lilonnary o/ plnnt ikiiiiih mentioned in thi» nionoijrtiph — Continued 
ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY UNDER COMMON ENGLISH NAME— Continued 



Common EnKllsh name. 


Sclentmc name. 


Common English name. 


Scientific name. 




Maluii ioen.sls. 
Micrampeli.s lobata. 
Allionia nyctaginea. 
rcntstemongrandiflonl.s. 
Pepo foetidi.s.sima. 
Vitis cinerea. 
Glycyrhiza Icpidota. 
Mentha canadensis. 
Allium mutabile. 
Rubusstrigasus. 
I'runus americana. 
Zizania aquatica. 


Wild rose, prairie 


Rosa pratincola. 






Wild toiir-o'clrKk 




Artemisia frigida. 
Fragaria \irginiana; Fra- 


Wild strawberry 




garia americana. 






Wild licorice 


Wild touch-me-not 

Willow 


Impatiens pallida. 




SaUx. 








Wild r«l ril.spl)erry 

Wild plum 






Yellow wood sorrel 

Zest-of-the-woods 




Wlldrice 









R C 



1 0. 5 



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154 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. ann. S3 

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